Anne-Laure Lemaitre Wants Art to Take Up More Space

Summary

'State of Art' is a new HypeArt series inviting artists, curators, collectors and other leading voices to weigh in on the ideas, debates and cultural shifts shaping contemporary art. Through intimate questions and personal recommendations, the series offers a closer look at what is exciting the art world, what needs to change and where things may be heading next.

Anne-Laure Lemaitre has long been interested in what happens when art is given more room to move.

Based in New York, the curator specializes in large-scale, in-situ projects, splitting her time between consulting for a range of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, and managing curatorial programs centered on emerging artists. Rather than treating architecture as a backdrop, her work often considers how an artwork can respond to, occupy and transform the space around it.

It makes sense, then, that two of the exhibitions that have stayed with her most this year took place far outside the conventional gallery model. One unfolded inside an empty Brooklyn office, while another took over six floors of a building in Jersey City. For Lemaitre, their appeal was not simply their scale, but the ambition behind them: independent curatorial projects using underutilized spaces to create something rigorous, unexpected and alive.

That same appetite for work that expands beyond familiar formats runs through her assessment of the art world in 2026. She sees an industry in transition, but also one filled with artists and organizers testing new ways of working, gathering and reaching audiences.

For the latest edition of State of Art, Lemaitre discusses the exhibitions still on her mind, Lesley-Anne Cao’s haunting “Amphibian Palm,” the artists she would invite to dinner and why she gives the art world a B-minus.

What’s the one show from the first half of this year that you can’t stop thinking about?

There are a few, but I’ll mention two. Both are very different, but function on a similar principle.

The first would be The Gallery’s WeWork (oralmoral), an evolving group show put together by Florian Meisenberg in an empty office space in Brooklyn. It showcased site-responsive works by so many artists I respect and adore, such as Cato Ouyang, Craig Jun Lee, Kyle Clairmont Jacques, Shaina Tabak, Brian Oakes, Anna K.E., Fin Simonetti and Pol Morton, among many others. It also offered free daily co-working space for artists alongside extensive, thorough and sharp programming on site.

The second is Six Artists. Six Floors. Six Solo Exhibitions., Gladwell Projects’ takeover of six floors of a building in Jersey City to organize solo presentations by Chunghee Yunm, Vamba Bility, Lisu Vega, Trevor Warren, Purvai Rai and Chiffon Thomas, a personal favorite. The quality of the show rivaled what you can see in major institutions. I’m quite in awe of what Christina Ine-Kimba Boyle organized on her own.

The scale and magnitude of both endeavors were thoroughly impressive. Both utilized vacant spaces to showcase rigorous curatorial projects with bite and a vision, and both felt incredibly fresh in an art world everyone seems convinced is in crisis.

Did any artwork actually make you feel something real this year, or has everything felt a little flat?

I’d say “Amphibian Palm” by Lesley-Anne Cao has definitely made an impact on me. The work presents a series of “books” in water tanks, with the pages flipping at random underwater.

It’s a visually striking and haunting work that brings to mind many layers of thought around accessibility, knowledge, bias and presence. It’s quite conceptual, yet mesmerizing and emotional. Lesley-Anne is the type of artist who makes me want to fall in love with art all over again.

I first saw a version of the work in the Philippines during a fair, then showed another iteration of it in Mexico City at THIRD BORN earlier this summer.

“I’d love to see more concrete, direct support for endeavors, artist-led or otherwise, that are navigating new ways to exist and connect with their public within our broader current context.”

What’s a show you have marked on your calendar for the rest of the year and why?

I usually don’t plan too far ahead when it comes to what I may see or why. I tend to be very impulsive and just schedule as I go.

If you had to give the 2026 art world a report card grade right now, what is it and why?

Probably a B-minus. I’m seeing so much emulation that I’m excited to see unfold, but I also understand it’s a transitional phase, which comes with quite a bit of growing pains and confusion.

What’s one trend in the art scene you want to see go away and what’s one you want to see more of?

I’d love to see fewer comments and analyses about the art world’s state, its shifts and what they may mean dominating conversations around art overall.

Instead, I’d love to see more concrete, direct support for endeavors, artist-led or otherwise, that are navigating new ways to exist and connect with their public within our broader current context.

If you can sum up the art world right now in exactly three words, what would they be?

Changing. Exciting. Challenging.

If you could grab a drink or meal with any artist tonight, living or dead, who would it be and what’s the first thing you’re asking them?

It kind of changes every day. Last week I would have said Öyvind Fahlström and would have asked him about his way of infusing political criticism and subversion into his practice.

Before that it could have been Derek Jarman, Ana Mendieta, Artemisia Gentileschi, Hélio Oiticica, Nam June Paik or so many others.

When it comes to living artists, David Hammons, Rossella Biscotti, Emeka Ogboh or perhaps, today, Francis Alÿs. I’d ask him how he has, over and over again, so magically created such powerful spaces for attention and emotion through simple gestures.