Several artists-in-residence at the Fondation des États-Unis (professionals and amateurs) are proud to present their work in the gallery on Wednesday, May 2 from 7pm to 8.30pm. Every twenty minutes, we will take you on a guided tour of some artists’ studios on the fifth floor, each representing a unique artistic universe.
The artists taking part in the exhibition: Marcel Abadia, sculptor Fatima Cadet, painter Laura Francese, illustrator Sarah Ghandour, painter Naomy Grand’Pierre, photographer Maximilien Gremaud, painter Isaac Howell, painter Justin Reid, painter Taylor Smith, painter The artists opening their studios: Marcel Abadia, sculptor Amy Dahmen, social design projects Maximilien Gremaud, painter Isaac Howell, painter Taylor Smith, painter, et Fatima Cadet, painter Ximena Salmeron & Will Swyers, mask construction, et Justin Reid, painter.
Artists’ biographies
Marcel Abadia grew up in Orange County California. He just started doing art in his second year of high school and while there was nominated as Artist of the year in 3D visual arts category. One of his works was nominated to be in the permanent collection of his high school. His artwork is more fantasy based and centered on creatures and monsters. Marcel would like to work in the movie or video games industry creating bizarre creatures. Sculptures and artworks in general tends to be centered on just the human figure, this is why Marcel works on monsters, to somewhat re-establish our childhood wonderous imagination.
New York native Fatima Cadet-Diaby is a playwright, director and producer who recently graduated from Mount Holyoke College, where she studied theatre and specialized in musical theatre. During the summer, she did internships with the Manhattan Theatre Club, Ars Nova Entertainment, The Musical Theatre Factory, Repertorio Español, and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Currently, she is mounting the 10-minute Play Festival to showcase the talents of the City’s residents. She is also passionate about painting.
“It’s not about you” is a prevailing phrase in the world of youth coaching and characterizes Amy Dahmen‘s professional and academic ventures. Before being called to Paris to pursue a masters degree in Design for Social Impact at Paris College of Art, Amy worked as an Art Director, Coach and Designer for social and youth development in New York, Jackson Hole and India. Her current work applies design thinking methodologies to migrant integration through sport and movement. Specifically, she is a co-founder of Kabubu, a sport inclusion social business. She and her team are supported by the Mairie de Paris, American Church in Paris and the Comité National Olympique et Sportif Français, as well as social business incubators SenseCube and the Sport Social Business Lab. Amy holds a BA from Gonzaga University and advanced certifications in Sports-Based Youth Development and Yoga Teacher Training. She enjoys fellowship, creating opportunities, moving, and drawing connections between the seemingly unconnected.
Born in Angoulême in 1994, Laura Francese completed her BA in Art History and Archeology at the Ecole du Louvre. She is currently a student at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, where she is developing her interests in visual arts and design. It is her second year living in an art studio at the Fondation des Etats-Unis.
Sarah Ghandour, an honored recipient of a full five year scholarship, graduated in May 2017 from Bard College and Conservatory with a Bachelor of Art in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance, having studied under Cellist Peter Wiley.us la tutelle du violoncelliste Colin Carr. Peintre amateur, elle a été attirée par les chefs-d’œuvre conservés dans les nombreux musées parisiens. La façon unique et imaginative dont des peintres tels que Camille Pisarro, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Alfred Sisley et bien d’autres ont utilisé la couleur l’a inspirée pour mettre en évidence les parallèles entre la peinture et les compositions musicales en découvrant sa propre palette de couleurs.
Naomy Grand’Pierre comes from Chicago. She grew up in Atlanta, born in Montreal and Haitian by origin. She studies psychology at the University of Chicago and is in her third year. She is a swimmer for the University of Chicago team and the Haiti National Team. She represented Haiti at the 2016 Olympic Games in swimming and hopes to return to the Olympics in 2020. In her spare time she enjoys photography, especially portraits and fashion.
Maximilien Gremaud is born in France in 1994. After a first formation at the École des Beaux-Arts de Versailles he studied philosophy then history of art at the École du Louvre without stopping practice of painting and sculpture. He lives in a studio of the Fondation des États-Unis since October. Born in Ankara on 22nd April 1996.
Yigit Gursoy went to Lycée Francais Charles de Gaulle at Ankara and stayed there until he graduated from high school. He met with the guitar at the age of 13 with the classical guitar, but stopped taking guitar lessons after a year and went for a self-taught method. Despite being accepted by Berklee School of Modern Music at the age of 17, he went to study political science at Lyon. After 2 years Yigit pursued his passion and started his music studies. He went and graduated from the International Jazz Academy at Nancy and moved to Paris to continue his studies at the American School of Modern Music.
Isaac Howell, (b. 1993 Princeton, NJ) earned his M.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2016, and his B.F.A. in Studio Art and Comparative Arts from Washington University in St. Louis in 2015. While studying at Washington University in St. Louis, Howell received the Ellen Battel Stoeckel Fellowship and was a resident at the Yale Norfolk Summer School during the summer of 2014. Howell received the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship through the Fondation des États Unis for the 2017-2018 Academic Year.
South Central LA native Justin ” HB ” Reid is an artist for animation as well as a dancer and producer of electronic music for the KRUMP dance movement. He has obtained his bachelor’s in animation and is currently studying for a master’s in Paris France at Gobelins, l’École de l’image. He will graduate summer of 2019. Justin’s ultimate goal is simply to have conversation with the world through the language of art. A conversation that both he and the world enjoyed.
Ximena Salmeron is a Mexican artist born in Austin, Texas, USA. She graduated from La Casa del Teatro in Mexico City and after graduating formed a theatre the company “RáfagaTeatro” with whom she performed for two years before moving to Paris. She studied movement and mime for a year in the École Internationale de Theatre Jacques Lecoq and is currently about to finish her one year study under the teaching of the master clown Philippe Gaulier. She has toured in over 6 states in Mexico, produced directed and starred in various short films and has performed in Paris at the Fête de la Cité 2017. Among other things, she has a fascination for constructing things for the stage, in her studio in the Fondation des Etats-Unis she experiments with diverse materials to create masks, props and costumes.
Will Swyers is from Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. He is just about to graduate from his second year of studying in Paris in the movement and theater creation program at L’Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. He has trained in circus and in martial arts, and has nine years of dance experience including performing in a ballet. His most recent project was “Songs of Death and Taxes”, an art song theater piece devised and performed here in the grand salon of the Fondation des États-Unis.
Taylor Smith is an artist from Rochester, New York. After receiving a B.F.A. in Painting and a B.A. in Art History from Boston University in 2015, she completed an M.A. in Cultural Mediation at the École du Louvre in Paris in 2017, and was awarded the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship for the 2017-2018 academic year. She has participated in several group and solo exhibitions, primarily in Paris and in Boston, in addition to a mural project and residency at the Asociación Atlas in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. Through her manipulation of natural processes (erosion, dripping water…) in addition to industrial and hand-made recycled materials, she investigates the perpetual conflict between nature and cultural production, addressing humans’ insatiable desire to “perfect” their surrounding environment. While in Paris, Taylor will work on a series of large-scale mixed-media works in collaboration with several scientists (including the oenologist Gérard Liger-Belair and PhD candidate at the Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure Nora Assendorp), and the American aerial photographer of polluted landscapes J Henry Fair, in order to combine microscopic and aerial imagery of nature destroyed and reconstructed by man into singular abstract compositions.
The official opening will take place on May 2nd at 7pm as part of Art-Hop-Polis, art hopping at the Cité internationale. The full program will be available on CitéScope. Follow us on Facebook and join our Facebook event to discover some teasers over the coming month!
Exhibition Opening Hours
Monday to Friday from 10am to 12:30pm and 2:30pm to 6pm. Evenings or weekends by appointment only: culture@feusa.org
Exceptional Closing hours
From Thursday 10 to Sunday 13, Tuesday 15 until 2:30pm, Monday 21 to Wednesday 23 and Friday 25.