Florence Bonnefous, co-founder of Air de Paris gallery, is profiled in a feature that traces the gallery's 35-year history from its founding in Nice with poet Edouard Merino to its current industrial space in Romainville, a northern Paris suburb. The gallery, named after Marcel Duchamp's readymade, launched with a legendary 1990 exhibition featuring Philippe Parreno, Pierre Joseph, and Philippe Perrin, and has since become known for championing underground conceptual and challenging art. Bonnefous is described as a preeminent gallerist-curator who prioritizes artistic integrity over profit, representing estates of avant-garde female artists like Sturtevant and Dorothy Iannone, and maintaining close bonds with artists such as Liam Gillick and Flint Jamison. The gallery is exhibiting at Art Basel Paris but recently withdrew from Art Basel in Basel over a booth placement dispute.
This profile matters because it highlights the enduring influence of a gallerist who has shaped contemporary art discourse through a curatorial approach that blurs the line between artist and dealer. Bonnefous's model—prioritizing weird, diverse questions and maintaining integrity in an increasingly corporate art world—offers an alternative to commercial gallery norms. Her role in developing relational aesthetics through early exhibitions and her support for overlooked female artists underscore her impact on art history and gallery practice.