Astrid Dick
Trans Avant Garde 2026: Paris - New York
Paris-based artist Astrid Dick and New York-based artist Michael David (and Yellow Chair founder) are putting together a class—more a friendly dismantling than a class, really.
The premise: what's stopping your work are the fears and inherited assumptions you've never questioned. Just as previous transavantgarde movements (most recently those of the late '70s and early '80s in New York and Europe) were anchored in freedom and nourished by transatlantic exchange, this class offers its own mix of nonlinear process, subjectivity, and sources, where emotion and rigor are not mutually exclusive but rather the engine for making work that best aligns with who you are.
Astrid and Michael have taught and built programs together for more than five years, within a framework that's playful and provocative, where humor and rigor share the same room. You'll be pushed outside your usual practice, encouraged to try something a little stupid on purpose, to make mistakes and let them be seen. Oil paint will give up some secrets. Non-traditional materials—mirror, encaustic, found objects—will get pulled in. Other ways of thinking and making!
Joining us will be Brigitte Mulholland, director of Brigitte Mulholland Gallery in Paris, who'll share her perspective as a gallerist and curator focused on the American and French contemporary art scenes. Brigitte opened her gallery in 2024 after twenty years in the New York art world, with the intention of building a bridge between the two cities.
Also joining us will be New York–based poet, essayist, and art critic John Yau, who was recently the guest of honor at the 25th Paris Poets & Critics Symposium, celebrating Yau's multifaceted career, his poetry, and his intersection with the visual arts.
The course culminates in a pop-up show of small works in Paris!
Astrid Dick is a painter born (1972) and raised in Buenos Aires and currently living and working in Paris. She began painting intensively on her own at 13 and later pursued studies in economics in Buenos Aires while continuing to draw in her free time. In 2002, she was awarded a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. After a life as an art double-agent, at age 36 she left her career as a university professor to devote herself entirely to art.
She has received fellowships from Yaddo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center, and has been an artist-in-residence at the Leipzig Spinnerei. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across Europe, the United States, and Argentina, including the Grand Palais in Paris and the Manoir de la Ville de Martigny in Switzerland. Most recently, she has shown at M. David & Co. Gallery, Below Grand Gallery in New York, and Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta. Her work has been reviewed by John Yau in Hyperallergic.
Dick has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses at INSEAD in France, where she was tenure-track faculty, as well as at New York University and Columbia University.
Michael David is a Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. He has exhibited internationally since 1981 and was represented for more than four decades by the historic New York galleries Sidney Janis Gallery and Knoedler & Co. His work is held in major public and private collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Guggenheim Museum, Brooklyn Museum, MCA Los Angeles, LACMA, and the Aspen Museum of Art. Upcoming solo exhibitions in 2027 will be presented by Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta and Bienvenu Steinberg & C in Tribeca, New York.
Over the last decade, David established the Fine Arts Workshop in Atlanta and Yellow Chair Salon, working with artists through immersive one-on-one mentorship to develop their artistic voice, professional practice, and exhibition opportunities. He also founded and directed two influential Brooklyn galleries: Life On Mars and M. David & Co.
Brigitte Mulholland is a contemporary art dealer and gallerist whose career has been dedicated to supporting and advancing the work of contemporary artists. After nearly two decades in the New York art world, including serving as Senior Director at Anton Kern Gallery, she founded Brigitte Mulholland Gallery in Paris in 2024.
Located in the historic Marais district, the gallery reflects Mulholland’s commitment to fostering dialogue between the New York and Paris contemporary art communities while championing artists at emerging, mid-career, and established stages of their practice. The program spans painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, film, and performance, with an emphasis on ambitious, conceptually driven work.
Drawing on her extensive experience working closely with artists, collectors, curators, and institutions, Mulholland has developed a reputation for thoughtful exhibition-making and long-term artist advocacy. Her gallery serves as an international platform for innovative contemporary voices and seeks to cultivate meaningful conversations across artistic and cultural boundaries.
John Yau is an award-winning poet, art critic, fiction writer, and curator whose work has profoundly shaped contemporary conversations around art and literature. The author of more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and criticism, his recent publications include Diary of Small Discontents: New & Selected Poems, 1974–2024 and Please Wait by the Coatroom: Reconsidering Race and Identity in American Art.
His criticism and essays have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, and Hyperallergic, of which he is a co-founder. A recipient of the Jackson Poetry Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, and numerous other honors, Yau is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts and continues to write and lecture extensively on contemporary art and poetry.
Course Structure
Three pillars hold the course together:
Group critiques throughout — rigorous, generous conversations about the work you're making, with sustained feedback from faculty and fellow artists as ideas evolve.
Prompts to shake your practice loose — exercises designed to interrupt habit, challenge assumptions, and open up unexpected ways of thinking and making.
In-depth analysis of mediums, materials, and studio practice — from oil paint to encaustic, mirrors, found objects, and beyond, we'll look closely at how material choices shape meaning, process, and the work itself.
