Art Events, Paris

ALL EYES ON MATIGNON: HÉLÈNE BAILLY MARCILHAC COMES HOME

ALL EYES ON MATIGNON: HÉLÈNE BAILLY MARCILHAC COMES HOME

Nearly forty years after her parents had a gallery at the same address, Hélène Bailly Marcilhac returns to 18 Avenue Matignon – this time with her own name above the door, and Alexis Mabille setting the scene.

Paris has a particular talent for making the past fashionable again.

This October, Galerie Hélène Bailly Marcilhac opens its second Parisian space at 18 Avenue Matignon, one of those addresses where art history, fashion and very expensive square metres have learned to coexist rather beautifully.

But this particular move is more personal than most.

In the 1980s, Hélène Bailly Marcilhac’s parents had their gallery at exactly the same address. Nearly four decades later, she returns to the place that formed part of her family’s story – not to recreate what was there, but to begin something new.

And that is where it gets interesting.

ALL EYES ON YOU

The new gallery has been completely redesigned as a restrained, flexible space intended to change with its exhibitions. For its opening on 19 October 2026, during the Nocturne of the Association Matignon Saint-Honoré, the gallery has invited Alexis Mabille to stage its inaugural exhibition, ALL EYES ON YOU.

It is a clever choice.

Rather than treating art, fashion and design as neighbours who politely acknowledge one another from across Avenue Matignon, Mabille brings them into the same conversation. His scenography creates unexpected correspondences between the works and gives the new space an identity from its very first exhibition.

The approach also feels entirely consistent with the gallery itself. Founded by Hélène Bailly Marcilhac in 2007, it has built its reputation around Impressionist, Modern and Post-War art, representing and presenting major names including Degas, Picasso, Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Picabia and Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne.

There is serious art here. Thankfully, the idea is not to make it feel serious.

The new Matignon address is intended to be more experimental – a place where periods, disciplines and creative worlds are allowed to collide rather than remain politely separated.

And perhaps the most elegant part of the story is that this supposedly “new” gallery is, in a way, a return home.

Paris loves a comeback.

Especially when the address was good enough to keep.

ADDRESS

Galerie Hélène Bailly Marcilhac
18, avenue Matignon
75008 Paris

Opening from 19 October 2026
ALL EYES ON YOU
Scenography by Alexis Mabille

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