“HUMAN FIRST”: Whitewall Projects Returns to Paris with a Poetic Reflection on Humanity

During Art Basel Paris week, Whitewall Projects unveils its second major group exhibition, “HUMAN FIRST,” at 37 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt. Curated by Laurent Moïsi and Michael Klug, the show gathers twenty-four artists and ten leading galleries to explore empathy, emotion, and the fragile essence of being human. Through painting, sculpture, and design, “HUMAN FIRST” invites visitors to reflect on identity, memory, and the enduring pulse of the human spirit.

“After last year’s exploration of nature, this new exhibition turns inward, toward humanity itself,” said Moïsi, Co-Curator & Publisher, Whitewall. “‘Human First’ brings together artists whose work reflects on what it means to be human, drawing from mythology, history, and imagined futures to question where we come from and where we are headed.”

Discover Whitewall Projects in Paris

The show brings together an international constellation of artists in collaboration with Artuner, Atra, Bremond Capela, Carpenters Workshop Gallery, Galerie Derouillon, Galerie Lefebvre & Fils, Galerie Scène Ouverte, Gratin, and Guggenheim Dewavrin, extending into the intersection of contemporary art and design. Lighting design is provided by Flos, with the support of Diptyque, Heavensake, and Spirit Brothers. To put the human first is to insist on empathy in an age of distraction.

“After last year’s exploration of nature, this new exhibition turns inward, toward humanity itself,” 

Laurent Moïsi

“HUMAN FIRST” gathers works that look at the self and the other to test how emotion can be transmitted via form, whether a face, a movement, or a surface. Through painting, sculpture, and design, artists revisit portraiture in a time when identity is both amplified and dissolved to answer the question: What place does the human occupy today?

Portraits anchor the exhibition not as mere likenesses but as sites of exchange. Each one asks what remains of the human image when stripped of artifice, and how empathy can still act as a form of truth. Beyond figuration, “HUMAN FIRST” opens into abstraction, symbolism, and material research. The human appears and disappears, yet always leaves a trace. When the figure fades, the search for the human remains the vital force, the need to locate the emotional charge behind matter.

Embark on Visceral New Works by Cutting-Edge Artists 

Julian Farade’s vibrant compositions pulse with raw energy and rhythm, while Dhewadi Hadjab’s intimate portraits probe vulnerability. Jeremy Deller continues his exploration of collective experience and social ritual, as Matthias Bitzer constructs layered spaces where memory and narrative intersect. Justine Neuberger’s dreamlike scenes merge myth and contemporary life, as Victor Bengtsson’s hybrid figures oscillate between the human and the vegetal. Trevor Shimizu captures the tenderness of daily gestures, and Ian J. Brown stages identity and desire through sculptural painting.

Elsewhere, Murray Clarke’s hyperreal canvases expose the tension between real and artifice, and Jan-Luka Schmitz, presented in collaboration with Artuner, animates psychological states through color and movement. Shuo Hao’s surreal mythologies appear between culture and fantasy, while Théo Ouaki and Adélie Ducasse revisit craft traditions through ceramics. Max Jahn’s copper portraits meditate on self-perception, and Talia Maidenberg explores intimacy through delicate figuration. Clément Bataille, curated by Guggenheim Dewavrin, reflects on the sacred and the erotic, and Renske Linders celebrates femininity in a delicate and honest way. Servane Mary reinterprets archival female imagery, while Blake Daniels fuses emotion and myth in expressive painterly narratives.

“‘Human First’ brings together artists whose work reflects on what it means to be human,”

Laurent Moïsi

The inclusion of design and collectible works presented by Atra and Carpenters Workshop Gallery underscores the exhibition’s commitment to blurring boundaries between disciplines. Frederik Molenschot’s luminous bronze forms echo the rhythm of cities, while Gérard Coquelin transforms raw industrial materials into objects of balance. Kendell Geers confronts political systems through sculptural gestures that combine ritual and defiance. Finally, Flos contributes sculptural lighting, including a unique reimagined edition of Tobia Scarpa’s Seki-Han lamp.

All the works are bound by a shared sensibility, an insistence on emotion, vulnerability, empathy, and attention as forces that still matter.

Visit the Radical Act of “HUMAN FIRST”

Here, to put the human first becomes an act that is both simple and radical. “HUMAN FIRST” will be on view from October 20 to November 8, 2025, at 37 Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, Paris, inviting visitors to navigate a carefully orchestrated space where artists, galleries, and design converge in a shared reflection on what it means to be human.