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Nathalie Lemaître’s final exhibition in Paris

… presence, not absence ... passage through light and shadow …

MARTINA NICOLLS

May 14

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The retrospective exhibition Passage celebrates the life and vision of the late Nathalie Lemaître, born into a family of artists from the north and Belgium. The exhibition from 13-31 May 2025 is held in the town hall of the 6^th district of Paris.

The exhibition of passages through light and shadow, curated in accordance with Nathalie Lemaître’s own wishes before her passing in the summer of 2024, is conceived as a celebration rather than a farewell.

The exhibition moves through key periods of her work: The Project Blackstar, New York, Parisian Passages, The Bottles, Secret Corsica, African Dream, Elsewhere, Happy Poker, Shards of Soul, and Unclassifiable. Each sample of the collections show her diverse works.

In the middle of the exhibition is a fantastical garden, surrounded by towering images of her theme Parisian passages, the iconic covered walkways around the city.

One of the outstanding elements of the exhibition is the Blackstar Project, known as “art as cosmic dialogue” – a multidisciplinary work spanning painting, film, and music. In collaboration with filmmaker and musician Théophile Minuit, Blackstar explores the New York periods of David Bowie and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of The Little Prince. Minuit’s Blackstar film, paired with David Bowie’s music, features Nathalie Lemaître’s large-scale artworks woven into the film like art within art.

It is rare to encounter an exhibition that feels so layered, so simultaneously intimate and theatrical. What remains is not her absence but her presence through large, vivid pieces that pay tribute to her legacy.