Alain Chiglien, a fashion designer and teacher, along with his life partner Roger Nilsson, decided to pool their talents and love of art to open a gallery in 2001. They chose a storefront on one of the busiest foot traffic streets of the Marais, rue Vieille du Temple, also a haven for upscale fashion shops.
Originally, the gallery specialized in mid-century-modern furniture and objects, sourcing goods from Sweden, where Nilsson grew up. Sometimes they would add art pieces to the mix to fill the wall space. The art proved to be as popular as the furniture. In 2009, Galerie NeC opened a separate gallery space just for art, on a side street across from the Picasso Museum. The pair were avid collectors of mid-century ceramics, and they would also offer pieces of their collection for sale at the gallery that sold extremely well. The next step came when they gave a solo show to ceramic artist Grégoire Scalabre. With the success of Grégoire Scalabre, and their passion for ceramics, Chiglien and Nilsson established themselves as the premiere gallery in Paris for ceramics. In 2008, they were selected to curate a ceramics biennniale for a museum in the south of France. Today, both galleries now exclusively show art by artists Vincent Gagliostro, Eva Hild, Vincent Leroy, Patricia Schworer, Mia E. Goranson, Jerome Mayer, Kim Simonsson, Steen Ipsen, and Nadia Pasquer. (Galerie NEC, 117 rue Vieille Temple, and 20 rue des Coutures Saint-Gervais. www.galerienec.com).
Kim Simonsson at Galerie NeC
Marian Goodman is one of only a handful of female gallerists in Le Marais. A Manhattan native, growing up on the Upper West Side, her father was an art collector, mostly of MiltonAvery. Newly divorced in 1962, Goodman went into the art business as a way to support her family. With a few partners, she started Multiples, a company that produced artist’s editions of prints and books ofAmerican artists Andy Warhol, Sol Lewitt, Claes Oldenburg, and Roy Lichtenstein. In 1977, Goodman was prompted to open her own gallery. Following the success of her place in NewYork, she decided to open the Marian Goodman Gallery in Le Marais in 1995. Her artists today include John Baldessari, Richard Deacon, Lawrence Wiener, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Gerhard Richter, and Annette Messager. (Marian Goodman Gallery, 79 rue du Temple. www.mariangoodman.com).
Ettore Spalletti at the Marian Goodman Gallery
A visit to the Northern Marais gallery area is not only a great chance to view some of the best contemporary art in Paris, it’s also an opportunity to see some of the incredible architecture of the 17th-century palaces they are housed in.
