Passages presents Casa Karina, a solo exhibition by Karina Bisch — a French painter born in 1974 — from January 17 to April 18, 2026.
The title of the exhibition evokes the boutique that the artist Sonia Delaunay opened in Madrid in the late 1910s, Casa Sonia. She is also the one who said that “if painting entered everyday life, it is because women wore it on themselves.”
Since the 1990s, Karina Bisch has been developing a practice full of homage and joy — a form of recognition without nostalgia — freeing herself from models and forming free associations across her references. In doing so, she seeks to “soften the hard edges between art, craft, and life.”
By transforming Passages into her Casa Karina, she carries painting across all supports and into every corner: on canvases, of course, but also on vases, chair-tables, a carpet, patchworks, cut-and-pasted wallpapers, lamps, a small hut, the walls…
Around thirty works, created for the exhibition or earlier, unfold throughout the spaces of Passages.
For the artist, the exhibition is a way of shifting the work of the studio into the architecture of the art center, transposing into it her palette of radiant colors.
Painting everywhere, painting as one lives — humbly — playing with the repertoire of forms inherited from the standards of modernism, from her memories, and from popular culture: Karina Bisch leads us along with her, with “painting that speaks, that dances, that laughs, that has a body.”
Karina Bisch was born in 1974 at Paris, where she now lives and works.
After studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam, Karina Bisch developed a unique artistic vocabulary, drawing on numerous references to geometric art as well as fashion and dance, shaping a particular sensitivity to modernity.
The artist closely examines the aesthetics of historical avant-gardes, distorting and adapting them to suit her needs. Through her works and performances — sometimes theatrical in tone — Karina Bisch, always irreverent and pragmatic, replays her own version of the 20th century by subverting the presumed universality of modernist canons.
Selection of récent personal exhibition: La tête dans le décor,Musée National Fernand Léger, Biot (2025) ; Dialogues : Karina Bisch / Alberto Magnelli, galerie Lahumière, Paris (2023) ; Tableaux de tissus, PS, Amsterdam (2023) ; Squares and Roses, in collaboration with Nicolas Chardon, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Bochum (2023) ;Stof, PS, Amsterdam (2023) ; Fleurs Diagonales, Banana, Marseille (2023) ; Modern Lovers, in collaboration with Nicolas Chardon, MACVAL, Vitry-sur-Seine (2022) ; Les Figures et Les Formes, galerie Thomas Bernard, Paris (2019) ; Les Tableaux Vivants, Centre d’art de L’Onde, Vélizy (2017) ; La tête dans la couleur, Palette Terre, Paris (2016) ; Comédie Moderne, Futura Art Center, Prague (2015) ; Arlequine, Galerie des Galeries, Paris (2015) ; Les Yeux Phosphores, with Nicolas Chardon, Galerie Art & Essai, Rennes (2015) ; Painting for Living_La Vitrine, Galerie des Galeries et FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2014) ; La Moderne, Hilary Crisp gallery, Londres (2013) ; Le Témoin, Kaunas Biennal et Teatro Valle Occupato + Nomas Foundation (2013) ; Painting for Living_La Boutique, Paris, (2012) ; Cache – Cache, Nosbaum & Reding, Luxembourg, (2011) ; Mathematicus Groteske, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2008)
Selection of collective exhibition: L’artiste et le vêtement : s’habiller en artiste, Louvre-Lens, Lens (2025) ; Parler avec elles, FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2024) ; Colour Image Space, Bart van der Leck in dialogue, Stiftung Insel Hombroich, Neuss (2024) ; Paris Peinture, MABA, Nogent-sur-Marne (2023) ; Garmenting: costume as contemporary art, Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2022) ; Filiations 2, Espace Art Concret, Mouans Sartoux (2022) ; AOULIOULE, MRAC, Sérignan (2022) ; Un printemps incertain, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2021) ; Foncteur d’oubli, FRAC Ile de France, Paris (2019) ; Lignes de vies – une exposition de légendes, MACVAL, Vitry-sur-seine (2019) ; MURALNOMAD, Le Quadrilatère, Beauvais (2018) ; Collectionner, le désir inachevé, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers (2017) ; L’Ecart Absolu, Le Quadrilatère, Beauvais (2017) ; Flatland / Abstractions narratives #1, MRAC Sérignan (2016) ; L’esprit du Bauhaus, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2016) ; Oublier l’architecture, CIAP Vassivière (2016) ; When will I be little again?, Cricoteka, Cracovie (2016) ; La maison cherche un amiral à louer, MNAC, Bucarest (2016) ; Et nous voici plus bas et plus haut que jamais, Chiso Gallery, Kyoto (2015) ; Triennale de l’Art Imprimé, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Le Locle (2015) ; Collections Contemporaines, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2013/2014) ; Toute la forêt, Apes&Castles, Bruxelles (2014) ; Wild Patterns, Galerie van Gelder, Amsterdam (2014) ; Biennale d’Anglet, Anglet (2013) ; De Puristes et de Fauves, Shanaynay, Paris (2013), La Demeure Joyeuse II, Francesca Pia Gallery, Zurich (2012) ; Historia Mysteria, Renwick Gallery, New York (2011) ; Ça c’est Paris !, David Roberts Art Foundation, Londres (2011) ; Tableaux, Le Magasin, Grenoble (2011) ; Tout ce que vous avez toujours voulu savoir sur le blanc, Frac Aquitaine, Bordeaux (2011) ; Aires de jeux, L’Onde, Vélizy (2010) ; Almeria, galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris (2010) ; Seconde Main, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris (2010) ; L’image cabrée, 11eme Prix Ricard, Fondation Ricard, Paris (2009).
Opening night
Friday, January 16 from 6:00 PM
Infra Saturday: Exhibition Tour and Discussion
Saturday, January 24 at 4:00 pm
Free with registration
Upcycling Workshop: Giving New Life to Your Textiles
Saturday, February 21 at 2:00 pm
€6 full rate, €4 member rate
Drawing Workshop
With Manoela Prates (artist-in-residence, Fall 2025)
Saturday, February 28 at 11:00 am
Free with registration
Participatory Thrift Shop
Clothing drop-off on February 27 and 28
Thrift shop open from Wednesday to Sunday, March 8
From 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Free admission
French Sign Language Tour
With the association Des Yeux, Des Mains
Saturday, March 14 at 2:00 pm
Free with registration
Infra Evening: Sophrology Workshop
Led by Marie-Laure Desnoës
Friday, March 20 at 6:00 pm
€15 full rate, €10 member rate
Workshop for Toddlers
Sensory discovery of the exhibition
Saturday, April 4 at 10:00 am
Ages 2 to 5
Free with registration
Talk by Karina Bisch
At the Médiathèque Jacques Chirac
Saturday, April 18 at 4:00 pm
Free admission