Balzac Paris went to meet Amélie du Chalard , founder of the contemporary art gallery Amélie Maison d'Art . Her journey, her projects, the women who inspire her and her favorite Balzac Paris pieces: discover her interview in our Journal.

AMELIE DU CHALARD

My name is Amélie du Chalard , I am 33 years old and I set up a contemporary art gallery, Amélie Maison d'Art , 5 years ago. The format is quite innovative: we exhibit works and objects of art in exceptional places designed like apartments, warm and lively, in which we can discover the works in situ.

AMELIE DU CHALARD

Absolutely: my mom already ! I have a mother who is a sculptor, that's why I've always had a strong taste for art, it's kind of a family heritage. Otherwise, we must have about fifteen female sculptors, for example Pilar Angeloglou , who works on abstract architecture with Mediterranean accents, or even Anouck Albertini , but also many ceramic artists ! Today, the border between ceramics and sculpture has really become more refined.

AMELIE DU CHALARD

Of course, I think of artists like Joann Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, two American painters whose abstract expressionist works speak to me a lot. There are also artists almost better known for being militant in their approach, such as Niki de Saint Phalle or Louise Bourgeois .

Otherwise, my mother and my grandmother are also intimately linked to my journey. My grandmother was not an artist strictly speaking, but she was a collector of small objects , she loved antiquing, she spent her life in flea markets and in antique shops. My mother, a sculptor, also played a role in my career. Independently of the artistic sensibility that she transmitted to me, she had developed in me a real taste for entrepreneurship! She always encouraged me to work, to be independent and an entrepreneur.

AMELIE DU CHALARD

I think I would choose a great 20th century art dealer like Peggy Guggenheim. At the time there were very few women collectors, she was very avant-garde . And then she had a kind of rather volcanic energy that I really like!

AMELIE DU CHALARD

Child, by their size and their strong symbolism: the giant spiders of Louise Bourgeois ! Otherwise, Yayoi Kusama's pumpkins. There is a sublime one that I saw during a trip to Japan on the island of Naoshima , just at the entrance to the port.

AMELIE DU CHALARD

I grew up in a kindergarten where above the board was written: “QOVOP”, an acronym for “Quand On Veut On Peut” ! Somehow this has guided me since I was a child. I had the chance to grow up in a setting with a lot of freedom, where I told myself that everything was possible. So I would say: when you have a passion, a project, a desire that takes your guts, you have to listen to yourself without asking yourself too many questions, and go for it!