Art History alumna wins Kea award and visits campus

Jennifer, described as “a fierce intellectual with periwinkle eyes” by Parisian newspaper Le Figaro, is the General Director of Paris’ Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC), or International Contemporary Art Fair. She is one of six New Zealanders to receive a 2018 Kea Award for the huge contribution she has made to fine arts and the renewal of FIAC - now one of the most prestigious art events in the world.

“I am profoundly moved to be receiving this award from my home country,” she says.

“International contemporary art has been the focus of my professional life. It is the education which I received in New Zealand, and more specifically at Auckland, that provided me with the skills I needed to decipher, comprehend and analyze successive phases in this unfolding history.”

Born in 1959 in Auckland, Jennifer studied Art History and French at the University of Auckland, graduating in 1980. From 1982 to 1987, she worked for major contemporary art galleries (Galerie Catherine Issert, Daniel Templon and Ghislaine Hussenot) and was actively involved in artists’ relations, the programming and preparation of major exhibitions together with their participation in leading international art fairs.

In 1990, she opened Galerie Jennifer Flay (1990-2003) in Paris which made its name as one of the most important of its generation. Then in November 2003, Jennifer was appointed Artistic Director of FIAC, Paris. In 2010 she became General Director and has since pursued the restructuring and development of the event, reinstating the original configuration of the architectural ensemble as it was conceived for the 1900 Exposition Universelle by creating a pedestrian esplanade between the Grand and Petit Palais across the avenue Winston Churchill.

At the University on Wednesday 20 June, Jennifer will be in conversation with Dr Linda Tyler, University Convenor of Museums and Cultural Heritage, at a special event at Old Government House.

“We are delighted to be hosting Jennifer who left New Zealand in 1980 when she won a French Government Scholarship to undertake doctoral studies with French Dada expert Michel Sanouillet (1924-2015) at the Université de Nice in France. Since that time she has risen to the very top of the art world in France becoming an internationally recognised gallerist, and now the Director of the Paris Art Fair. She completely reinvented that event, contributing hugely to the Parisian economy and culture in the process, an achievement that was recognised by the award Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government in 2015. [She also has an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.]”

Linda will talk to Jennifer about her role with FIAC and also about her ethical commitment to art’s transformative power.