In “Art contemporain: Olivia Breleur, la galeriste antillaise de l’hexagone,” Philippe Triay writes about Martinican gallery director and founder Olivia Breleur, who runs Maëlle Galerie, located in the district of Belleville in Paris’ 20th arrondissement. Triay says that she is the only Caribbean gallery director dealing in contemporary art in mainland France. The gallery is located at 1-3 rue Ramponeau, Paris (Belleville metro station).

Olivia Breleur founded the gallery in October 2012, at age 26. She proposes a new professional approach by offering the concept of an online art gallery as well as an iconoclastic space. The Maëlle Galerie, specializing in contemporary art and privileging the medium of drawing, claims to reinvent the collector/gallerist relationship. Breleur says, “To become a gallery owner I believe that one must first and foremost have an inordinate passion for the artists one represents. One must take a path that is not necessarily linear. [. . .] I think that there are particular issues for Caribbean artists in terms of visibility.”

Triay writes that Breleur, from the town of Riviere-Pilote in Martinique, is proud to be the only West Indian gallery director of the hexagon, with both a physical and online presence. She says, “We currently represent fourteen artists, mostly artists from Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana, but also from Haiti, the Canary Islands, Brazil, France, Poland, and Australia.” Until November 22, 2014, the gallery hosted Brazilian artist Iris Della Roca with a photo exhibition of children of the favelas of Rio and the neighborhoods of Clichy-sous-Bois.

[Presently, until December 2, the gallery is showcasing Venezuelan artist Pedro Morales.]

For full review and a video of Breleur explaining her role as a gallery director, see http://www.la1ere.fr/2014/10/27/art-contemporain-olivia-breleur-la-galeriste-antillaise-de-l-hexagone-201164.html

See more on the gallery here: maellegalerie.com

Photo from http://lespapotiesdemanzellesapote.blogspot.com/2014/01/instant-feminin-avec-femmdout.html