Family Reunion on Rue de Seine: Until October 17, the Galerie de l'Europe is exhibiting sixteen painters and one sculptor side by side, the observation of reality on one side, the pure experience of matter on the other.

It's a grand family reunion taking place on Rue de Seine. Sixteen painters, one sculptor, two sides—and between the two, a slope much gentler than one might think.

As for the individual artists, the exhibition is arranged by family. Couloumy paints interiors from which the inhabitants have just departed: in The Living Room at 5 Rue Renan (46 x 38 cm), all that remains is a herringbone parquet floor, a cold fireplace, and a light that illuminates no one. In Alain Pontecorvo's work, Protected Crossing (60 x 60 cm) depicts a woman and a child on a bicycle at a pedestrian crossing, their shadows occupying more space than the women themselves. Bô Gaultier de Kermoal reduces his cherry tree to a black branch against a milky background (Sakura K2, 80 x 80 cm), while Juliana Wildner approaches Bonnie's peonies (71 x 116 cm) to the point of transforming them into folds of flesh.

Then come the bucolic works: the old oak by Éric Reynier devoured by autumn (97 x 130 cm), the tropical forest by Gérard Priault crossed by a column of rain (The Storm), the Provence of Roche-Gardies at midday, the muted landscape by Teruhisa Yamanobe. Then the surrealists: the Woman with the Long Crack by Florent Farges, split by an orange line, and the woman walking with a lantern by Florent Terracol (Regent's Park, 146 x 96 cm). The bronze by Pierre Yermia, Flight, freezes wading birds at the moment of departure.

Opposite, nothing recognizable. Joseph Jeantet applies a single stroke of blue to the cotton (No. 142, pigment and charcoal, 113 x 163 cm) and stops the canvas the second the color becomes form. Catherine Barthelemy stacks her squares in a deep blue, Franck Sèves lets the colors of Enfanté 08 flow in a vertical downpour, Jacques Reverdy opens an ochre Cliff, Catherine Vindy lays down an Autumn in flat planes of earth, INIS makes an Urban Harmony vibrate where the city is nothing more than a rhythm.

Most of those who paint abstraction have come from a figurative background. The family reunion hinges on this: the same blood, two languages.

This exhibition is featured in our list of the most beautiful free exhibitions in Paris; on rue de Seine, we had already seen the chromatic poems of INIS and the chromatic dialogue of Joseph Jeantet and Thierry Penven.

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GALERIE DE L'EUROPE From September 22 to October 17, 2026
55 rue de Seine, 75006 Paris
Metro: Mabillon (Line 10), Odéon (Lines 4/10)
Tue. to Sat. 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2 p.m.-7 p.m. or by appointment
Free admission

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