Alex Ayed’s practice is an intricate and conceptual kaleidoscope of the intentional and accidental, living and static, fictional and real. Working in sculpture, installation, assemblage and photography, the French-Tunisian artist “lets things happen” in his surroundings, travels and experiences which he then translates to into playful and poetic objects and constellations, placed inside walls, corners or shelves in the exhibition spaces. Dried-out insects, bits of marble, a stuffed fox, a dead fly, Tunision olive oil soap, present in his works, tell personal stories, as well as allude to the questions of migration and movement, exploration, conquest and trade. Leaving space for the unknown, failure and lack of meaning, Ayed approaches his exhibitions as single works in themselves. Continuously transforming the spaces, inviting the local neighbourhoods, crediting 36 pigeons, two dogs and a snake that contributed in the exhibition-making, he creates assemblages from assemblages. Ayed’s practice is inherently unpredictable, with his works often creating meaning on their own through chance and context. ...
Balice Hertling was founded in 2007 by Daniele Balice and Alexander Hertling. Balice Hertling has hosted the debut solo shows of many artists like Camille Blatrix, Xinyi Cheng and Isabelle Cornaro—all of whom have gone on to earn widespread recognition. From 2012 to 2016, gallery founders Daniele Balice and Alexander Hertling operated a project space in Manhattan. Returning to France in 2017, they relocated the main gallery to Paris’ Marais district and transformed the former Belleville location into a space for curated projects and shows by younger artists. Indeed, many artists represented by the gallery exemplify unique subcommunities of the emergent art world. This breadth of representation also translates to a breadth of medium, as the gallery represents painters as well as artists working in mixed media such as film, performance and sculptural objects. The gallery also represents artists whose careers are more established : British conceptual artist Stephen Willats, Syrian-born painter and sculptor Simone Fattal, and Italian artist Enzo Cucchi. In its programming and practices, Balice Hertling constantly works toward creating a more diverse and equitable art landscape. In this spirit, the gallery is proud to represent the Estate of Behjat Sadr, who was the first woman artist to be recognized as a modern master in Iran. As a result of the pandemic, the gallery co-founded « Palai » in the summer of 2021, a yearly exhibition hosting a small group of galleries from around the world, in historic locations in Lecce, a city in Italy's Puglia region. Palai is neither a curated exhibition nor a fair, it is thought to be a version of a residency, a collegial collaboration, where artists, galleries, and friends of the art world come together. In 2021 Balice Hertling relocated and brought closer both spaces in the Marais with a new main space inaugurated by a Ser Serpas scultpure solo show, and a new showroom and project space on rue de Montmorency. ...
