Visite Privée: Art Gallery Visit Series
January 29th, 2026 @ by Lara Sedbon
Columbia alumni were welcomed by the French artist Roxane Gouguenheim for a guided tour of her solo show at the gallery by Lara Sedbon.
Roxane has developed, since 2015, an artistic practice rooted in a reflection on historical night. Through painting, sculpture, digital image/video, and installation, she examines the persistence of ruins, the segmentation and absence of bodies, forms of afterlife and remanence, and the traces left by the major catastrophes of the twentieth century—war, extermination, and uprooting.
In the exhibition « Opening the Dark Times », Gouguenheim explores shapes of resistance that emerge at the heart of historical catastrophe. Painting, sculpture, and installation form a constellation of fragments in which bodies, languages, and materials bear the traces of wars, exiles, and collapses from the twentieth century to the present. In a dialectical dialogue with Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno, the exhibition questions the afterlife of forms as systems falter. Here, art does not repair; it opens breaches, exposes ruptures, and turns fragility itself into a site of thought. « Opening the Dark Times » invites us to dwell within the fracture, where, in the night of history, a few fragile lights still persist.
Roxane Gouguenheim
Exil_2, 2025
Sculpted White Clay, Soap
24 x 24 x 22 cm
ABOUT THE SERIES
Each visit includes a guided tour led by an artist, curator, or gallerist, followed by an engaging discussion at a Paris art gallery or artist atelier. It provides a unique opportunity for alumni, artists and galleries to connect, fostering meaningful relationships around the world of contemporary art.
Posted by Victor Schaub Wong ’91 GSAPP