Laffanour / Galerie Downtown Paris, in collaboration with the Charles Riva Collection, presents the exhibition LEVEL, an encounter between modern and contemporary design and works by great names in contemporary art. This collaboration is divided into two phases: a first exhibition in Paris at the Downtown Gallery from March 24th to May 20th 2023, and the other at the Charles Riva Collection in Brussels, from April 19th to July 1st 2023.
After the success of his collaboration with Galerie Perrotin (exhibition La Cité Universitaire by Jean Prouvé, from January 19th to February 25th 2023), François Laffanour is once again bringing design furniture into dialogue with contemporary art. In partnership with the collector Charles Riva, he highlights the works of great 20th and 21st century designers.
Charles Riva is particularly fond of this idea of putting works of different origins in relation, which stems from his desire to break away from the white cube concept which is typical for contemporary art galleries. The collaboration with François Laffanour, whom he has known for a long time, was therefore a natural choice: a cross between furniture and graphic arts, mutually enriching each other, with pieces of exceptional quality, hence the ambitious title of the exhibition LEVEL.
The exhibition presents on one hand, modern design, with major figures such as Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, enhanced with some poetic design pieces by contemporary Korean designer, Choï Byung Hoon. On the other hand, the public will discover a selection of works by contemporary American artists such as Paul McCarthy, Richard Prince and the conceptual artist Christopher Wool. The exhibition creates an aesthetic complementarity between these two worlds, under the watchful eye of François Laffanour and Charles Riva. Through this collaboration, the duo implement the vision of art they share: to enhance the works by contextualizing them, by creating real living spaces at the crossroads of interior architecture.
