Qui sommes-nous ?
A propos de l'art cinétique

Who are we ?

The gallery at 4 rue Malher (Paris 4e)

Espace Meyer Zafra opened its space in November 2000 in the historic Marais district of Paris under the direction of Liliane Zafrani. The gallery began the promotion of Latin American kinetic artists and geometric abstraction, and then it enlarged its group with European artists of the same trend.

In March 2001, the gallery organized the first exhibition of Manuel Mérida in Paris, then the first group show of kinetic Venezuelan artists, involving the great masters Jesus Soto and Carlos Cruz-Diez, others of the same generation as Narciso Debourg, and artists of the second generation such as Francisco Salazar and René Ugarte, who will have later an individual exhibition at the gallery with a publication of a catalog.

Between 2002 and 2004, the gallery changed temporarily her artistic line and defended Venezuelan artists sometimes figurative, sometimes abstract, including photographers.

Year 2004 was marked by the first big exhibition devolved to the emergence and to the development of the Latin American Avant-Garde between 1920 and 1970: " Inverted Utopias: Avant-garde in Latin America " organized by the Museum of Fine Arts of Houston. With more than 250 works and 70 represented artists, this exhibition demonstrated, among others, a certain autonomy of the Latin American scene regarding to the European and American scene in the After-War years.

It is from this event and from a decisive conversation with the Master Soto that the Espace Meyer Zafra decided to get involved determinedly in the defence and the promotion of the kinetic and geometrical artists. In October 2004, the gallery organized the collective show " Movement and Abstraction " with Soto, Cruz-Diez, Mérida and Ugarte. 

In January 2005 occurred Jesus Soto's death. The gallery decided to pay him a tribute and organized in July the exhibition "Autour de Soto" including the artists whose he influenced the work : Dario Perez-Flores, Narciso Debourg, Manuel Mérida, René Ugarte, Cesar Andrade.

Strongly urged  to support the promotion of the kinetic art on the Parisian scene, Liliane Zafrani organized in 2006 the exhibition " Une Histoire du Cinétisme ", then an outstanding retrospective of the work of Carlos Cruz-Diez in October of the same year.

In 2007, the exhibition organized at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Reina Sofia of Madrid " Lo(s) Cinetico(s) " with the artists such Carlos Cruz-Diez, Matilde Perez, Nicolas Schöffer, Jesus Soto or Luis Tomasello, came to legitimize the interest of the public for this current. It is as well from this date that the programme of the gallery turned more widely to the international artistic scene.

Other major artists joined the gallery. In 2007, Yaacov Agam (born in 1928), who introduced the fourth dimension into the kinetic art. In 2008, Ludwig Wilding (1927-2010), the German master of the optical illusion. In 2009, Luis Tomasello (born in 1915) with his subtle reflection of the light under its cut reliefs, and Antonio Asis (born in 1932) who has developed since 1956 vibrating reliefs. In 2010, Matilde Perez (born in 1920), the Chilean representative of the optical art. Representing the geometrical abstraction, the Swiss painter and sculptor Jean-Claude Reussner (since 2007), the Russian artist Youri Jeltov (since 2008) and Swiss Walter Strack (since 2009).

Being faithful to the Parisian Spring meeting of the art, the Espace Meyer Zafra takes part regularly in the Modern and Contemporary Art Fair Art Paris in the Grand Palais.

At the end of 2010, to celebrate the ten years of the gallery, was organized an exhibition entitled " Dix dans la recherché pour l’oeil à partir des années 60 " with ten Italian kinetic artists of the Gruppo N : Getulio Alviani, Giovanni Anceschi, Marina Apollonio, Enrico Castellani, Toni Costa, Ennio Chiggio, Edoardo Landi, Manfredo Massironi, Grazia Varisco and Giancarlo Zen.

Actually, the Espace Meyer Zafra presents a retrospective of the founding father of the Cybernetic art, the artist of Hungarian origin, Nicolas Schöffer (1912-1992) and exposes geometrical paintings of the years 1948-1950 rarely shown. These pieces illustrate the transition between Schöffer the painter and Schöffer the cybernetic sculptor. We can see also works of his “Univers Tramé" developed between 1974 and 1976.

The Espace Meyer Zafra open her 2011 Autumn programme with an exhibition of recent works of the Brazilian artist Joao Galvao, followed by chosen works of "Carlos Cruz-Diez 1964-2005 "at the end of October.