Thursday, May 5, 2011

Black Paris Profiles™: Laurence Choko

Laurence Choko is the owner of Galerie Intemporel, a delightful space near the Centre Pompidou that features the works of African and African Diaspora artists. I first heard of her and her gallery when I began the fundraising effort for Beauford Delaney’s tombstone in 2010. In getting to know her, I discovered her fervor for promoting Diaspora artists. Laurence was pleased to grant me an interview for Black Paris Profiles™, and I am equally pleased to share what I learned from her below.

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Laurence Choko
© Morgan Roppers


Laurence Choko was born in Fort de France, Martinique. She spent her childhood and adolescence in Le Havre, and subsequently moved to Paris to study art. She returned to Martinique in her twenties, and discovered the art of the Caribbean at that time. In particular, she credits “the spontaneity of the artistic universe of Haïti” for helping her to understand Western art better. As a result, she began to collect art and decided to represent artists who had little visibility in Europe. In fact, her decision to represent these artists stemmed directly from the fact that they were not known in Europe.

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Black Paris Profiles is now available on Kindle.  Only excerpts are available on this blog.
To get your copy of Black Paris Profiles, click HERE.

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Entrée to Black Paris!™ is a Discover Paris! blog.



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