Roger Pailhas Prize
Paying tribute to the Marseille-based gallerist, known for his daring and innovative booths within the most prestigious art fairs, Art-o-rama organizes since 2015 the Roger Pailhas Prize awarded by a committee of collectors and art professionals.
It rewards the best curatorial project by reimbursing the costs of participation at the fair.
Roger Pailhas
Roger Pailhas inaugurated his first gallery in Marseille (Cours Julien area) in 1986 with a group show that gathered Daniel Buren, Gilbert Della-Nocce, Toni Grand, Jannis Kounellis, Sol Le Witt, Mario Merz, and Bruce Nauman.
In 1990, he opened a second space in Paris with a solo show by John Knight. In 1996 the Marseille-based gallery moved to the Vieux-Port (old harbour central area) into a 1,000sqm space. He closed the Parisian gallery in 1998 and decided to focus on Marseille instead.
In 1996 he created Art Dealers, an original contemporary art fair where he gathered, within the gallery’s space, 8 new international galleries each year.
Meanwhile, he participated in some of the most prestigious international art fairs such as Art Basel, Fiac, and the Armory Show, where he offered, with the complicity of his artists, among the most ambitious and adventurous booths. Samuel Keller himself said that Roger Pailhas’ booths inspired the Statement section of Art Basel. The gallery and Art Dealers ceased to exist when Roger Pailhas passed away in 2005.
2025 laureate : Season 4 Episode 6, London
David Attwood
Season 4 Episode 6 presented in 2025 new works by Perth/Boorloo based artist David Attwood. Known for assembling deft combinations of contemporary commodities, the works on show continue Attwood’s interests in housework, its labour conditions and the sculptural potential of its associated appliances, technologies and consumables. Particular to this presentation for Art-o-rama is the globally iconic Red Bull energy drink, which is used to explore ideas around energy, productivity, performance and work.
For More Work For Mother, a suite of free standing sculptures, the Red Bull can label has been reproduced and affixed to discarded vacuum cleaners rods. Resembling aluminum cans that have been impossibly stretched upwards, the chrome rods stand scattered throughout the exhibition space.
In the wall-based assemblage Untitled, a Scrub Daddy ‘caddy’ (a peculiar spin-off product of the well-known smiling Scrub Daddy sponge) is fixed to a pane of glass. The cavities of the protruding caddy’s ‘eyes’ have been filled with powdered taurine, the active ingredient in Red Bull. As if its pupils were dilated, the caddy’s face appears in a state of frenzy.
Through wall-based and freestanding sculpture, Attwood playfully yet poignantly conflates the auratic qualities of Red Bull with products of domestic maintenance, pitting the idealisation of energy consumption against the realities of its expenditure.
2025 Roger Pailhas Tribute Booth
Twenty years ago, Roger Pailhas left us, having succeeded in establishing a gallery and a contemporary art fair in Marseille and from Marseille on the international scene, enabling his city to arouse an interest in this field that has continued to grow ever since.
The talented Roger Pailhas not only had an eye for discovering artists, but also for discovering gallerists.
He knew that fairs were the future of the art world, having himself participated in the most important international fairs – FIAC, ART BASEL and ARMORY SHOW – at the beginning of the 21st century.
In 1996, he created ART DEALERS and invited 8 international galleries to exhibit in his own 1000 m2 gallery on Marseille’s Old Port.
Each year, in May, the galleries were invited to take over a booth, identical for each one, following one another along the length of the gallery.
In many ways, this innovative gesture was the forerunner of numerous international events highlighting collaboration between galleries.
When Roger Pailhas passed away in 2005, Jérôme Pantalacci and Gaïd Beaulieu, who had been working alongside him, decided to continue the adventure of an atypical fair from Marseille, which had become a must for many French and international collectors and professionals.
In 2007, following this direction, they created Art-o-rama.
For the tribute, Gabrielle Bryers, Roger Pailhas’ long-standing partner in crime, brought together in a collaborative spirit eight galleries that have marked the history of this unconventional fair. The galleries shared a common ART DEALERS booth and each exhibited a work of their choice, underlining the commitment and vision of the passionate lover of Art and Marseille that was Roger Pailhas.
The presented galleries were:
Air de Paris, Romainville, Grand Paris
Participated at ART DEALERS in 1997, 1999, 2001 and 2004
Art: Concept, Paris
Participated at ART DEALERS in 1997 and 1999
Catherine Bastide, Brussels
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2004
Esther Schipper, multiple addresses
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2004
Galleria Continua, multiple addresses
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2002
Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2002
Loevenbruck, Paris
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2002 and 2005
Mennour, Paris
Participated at ART DEALERS in 2004
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Gabrielle Bryers Gallery, NY – January 1981 to June 1988…. Art dealer, Curator since.
Gabrielle Bryers 40 years ago introduced Leo Castelli to Roger Pailhas for the opening of L’ARCA on the Cours Julien.
This led to the exhibition NEW YORK 85 July 9 – August 31, NEW ART NOW ARCA MARSEILLE, followed by numerous international exhibitions at New York’s Sonnabend Gallery and Zurich’s Bischofberger Gallery, among many others.
Laureates
2024 : Zyrland Zoiropa, Berlin, with Liam Allan and Burckhard Beschow
2023 : Galeria Mascota, Mexico, with Michael Ross
2022 : Gilles Drouault galerie, Paris, with Jason Dodge
2021 : Exo Exo, Paris, with Gaspar Willmann
2019 : VEDA, Florence, with Dominique White
