About

Convinced of the need to reinstate the role of art as a driving force in social change, Catherine Bastide is committed to the development of a network of artists and thinkers who encourage sustainable development opportunities and behaviours on a local and global level. Catherine Bastide is actively involved in models of social entrepreneurship. Current actions include the You Should Be An Artist fund, Fabric’Africa and The Skateroom.

Additionally, Catherine Bastide organizes fine art exhibitions both independently and in collaboration with other actors, in the art world and beyond.

About Catherine Bastide

Catherine Bastide Biography

Catherine Bastide has about twenty-five years of experience in the field of Contemporary art. She founded Catherine Bastide Gallery in Brussels in 2000, working to develop the career of artists on the international art scene. She was representing Jacques André, Geert Goiris, Sarah Crowner, Jean-Pascal Flavien, William Pope.L, Ola Rindal, Josh Smith, Valérie Snobeck, Catherine Sullivan, Janaina Tschäpe, Kelley Walker and many others.

As an art dealer she has traveled the world extensively, discovering young talents, staying on top of current art trends, forging deep relationships with artists, collectors, curators and institutions, developing an expertise for dealing in the primary market.

Catherine Bastide got a start in art by working in 1986 for legendary French collector Bob Calle, in preparation for the opening of the “Carré d’Art” museum in Nîmes; working on the Van Abbe Museum collection and an Allan McCollum exhibition. In 1989, she became assistant to Jennifer Flay at Ghislaine Hussenot Gallery in Paris, where she eventually became director. There she worked closely with artists such as Christian Boltanski, Jean-Marc Bustamante, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Katharina Fritsch, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Andreas Gursky, On Kawara, Mike Kelley, Sherrie Levine, Richard Long, Matt Mullican, Juan Munoz, Tony Oursler, Richard Prince, Edward Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Diana Thater, Jeff Wall, Franz West …

After an experience in New-York and Los Angeles, where she established long time working relationship with artists she came to Brussels.

In 1999, Prior to opening her own gallery, she co-curated with Anne Pontégnie, a Landmark exhibition with famed artists Mike Kelley and Franz West in the historical Villa Empain in Brussels. In 2011, she was in charge of the artistic direction of the exhibition “After Images” at the Musée Juif de Bruxelles, curated by Fionn Meade. The exhibition presented works by 34 major American artists drawn from Belgian collections.

With the edition company, Les Presses du Réel in Paris and Le Consortium, Dijon, she launched the program at “8 rue Saint Bon” in Paris where she showed publishing-related works by artists such as Lynda Benglis, Charles De Meaux, David Douard, Tom Holmes, Valerie Snobeck, Charlene Von Heyl. Drawing on her extensive experience in the global contemporary art world and art market and her presence on most major international art fairs (Art Basel, Frieze, FIAC, etc.), Catherine Bastide has developed a wide-ranging professional network and deep expertise based on well-established and collegial relationships with art galleries, collectors, institutions and non-profits.

Catherine Bastide is now proposing a new mode of collaborations with artists and the art market on the conception of artist-driven proposals, developing a green fund for artists residencies projects and special projects acting for the awareness of the global goals for sustainable development.