Introduction

If you got to this page you're probably thinking :

“Well I really like the art featured here but … who is behind this operation?
How reliable these people really are ? how do they pack, and how about banking, and shipping…? “


As it's been over twelve years now that I ship artworks worldwide (literally) I have adopted
a series of measures which you will find client friendly.
For instance, we pack and ship at cost !


I treat my clients like I wish I were treated when I'm the client ! It's another frame of mind!
In the next few pages, I've tried to outline who we are,how we work, the passion, the ethics and the hours we put into the Gallery and how you can purchase from us easily without having to worry about annoying details.


Take time to read them and, as always, if you have a doubt on ANYTHING, drop us a line!

House Policy

You're probably thinking well … who is behind this gallery?


the man behind the wheel is Pierre R.G. Higonnet
(that's me on the picture), born Paris 1966.I was drawn very early to antiques and fine arts and I used to visit the Louvre every Wednesday with my mother at a tender age.
My eye and taste were also formed at home also because I come from a family of antique dealers, connoisseurs and collectors. The Italian Renaissance, the Dutch masters, the Northern School of Dürer...these were my passions as a youth.
Countless trips abroad with my family broaden my experience, discovering medieval churches, mysterious pyramids, magnificent museums and world-class exhibitions.

After a classical education in both Europe and the USA,
I worked at first in advertising in Paris as a photographer and Art Director. I learned a lot during that period, although I would soon discover that it wasn't my field. In 1989, I needed a
change; cosmetics and fashion were definitely not my thing.

So I moved to Venice - one of the most beautiful cities in the world and bought a run down “negozio” on the Island of the
Giudecca. At the time , people said with a grin : “Oh! the Giudecca...the wrong part of Venice!”
The Giudecca Island : The Palanca Neighbourhood (enlarge)
Sunset on the Giudecca Island
Today it's now considered really “in” to be on the Giudecca. A lot of artists have moved here, an a few personalities too: Elton John has a home here, the actor Ulrich Tukur lives at the Palanca. Geoffrey Humphries and Fabrizio Plessi have their workshop down the block...)

Birth of a gallery


In 1990, I decided very romantically to open an art gallery. I didn't know the field so well, nor was I drawn to contemporary art. But then I said to myself:

“it's impossible that all this trash art they produce today (that is currently publicized) is the only art made today!... There must be amazing artists out there but they're unknown because they dont “fit in” the current trend".

So I went out looking for them. Your only true capital is yourself.
Using both my art/antique taste coming from my mother and the printing, paper, photography background that came from my father's side, I decided to dedicate a substancial part of my activity to traditional black and white printmaking. I realized also that all the “great signatures”, the celebrated, the famous, the recognized artists hadn't produced such great art, and that their best works were way too expensive for me to start with anyway.

So I actually took printmaking classes both in France and Italy, not to produce my own art - leave that to the truly gifted ! - but in order to know what they feel when they create. Going through the process makes you more aware of the work involved.

In 1990, I also had the privilege to meet Jean-Pierre Velly, a French artist living in the outskirts of Rome, through another excellent etcher Edo Janich. I fell under a spell viewing his etchings. They were the most intriguing, mysterious, often tragic, art I had ever seen by a living artist. Much to my dismay, a few weeks later, he was to drown in a lake near Rome in a senseless boating accident.


By 1993, the gallery was operational. The structure was there but what was I to hang ? It took me several years to build up a crew of artists. I started out exhibiting the few talents I liked; amongst the first sculptors were Mauro Corda and Silvano Porcinai; Gérard Trignac's and François Houtin's etchings were on view already back in 1994 as well as Christiane Vielle's informal aquatints; I bought works outright and sold succesfully. I purchased sculpture and drawings of Mauro Corda as well as some Velly etchings and engravings. I got interested in Erik Desmazières' and Philippe Mohlitz' amazing prints too, as well as Livio Ceschin's delicate vision of nature. I then bought many bronze pieces and drawings by Laurent Belloni, mezzotints by Mikio Watanabé.


I have featured in the Gallery over 30 solo exhibitions:

paintings by the local artist Daniele Bianchi, or drawings on velum by the mexican born Miguel Condé or the luscious watercolors by the Rome-based but spanish born Pedro Cano; photographs by Jean-Christophe Ballot and innovative painting by Mathias Schauwecker. We had three solo exhibitions with the bosnian Safet ZEC, one of the great talents of today.


By 2000, I had 30 artists! and a collection of several hundred pieces! Came in three artists from France, Lionel Guibout, Raffi Kaiser and Nicolas Alquin.
In 2002 I published my first artist book, le Radeau de la Méduse (www.medusa-project.net) and in 2003 I became the proud editor of nine bronze pieces by Alquin. I also amplified art by living artists