Ariana Papademetropoulos brings her signature “Californian Occultism” to the Marais with Glass Slipper, her first solo exhibition in France. Now on view at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Marais, the show transforms the gallery into an immersive environment where hyperrealism meets vaporwave aesthetics. As a result, the space becomes a shifting landscape between the familiar and the uncanny.
Immersive Installations and Shifting Realities
At the center of the exhibition sits “Water Based Treatment,” a large, inhabitable aquarium that functions as a “heterotopia” within the gallery. Visitors can enter the glass enclosure, where they recline on a built-in mattress while listening to an ambient score by Nicolas Godin of Air. Surrounded by shimmering “kissing fish,” the installation creates an intimate yet performative setting.
Beyond this central work, the artist’s large-scale paintings blur the line between interior and exterior spaces. Drawing from references like The Wizard of Oz and Jungian psychology, these compositions place domestic objects—such as gingham chairs and Louis XV-style armchairs—within unstable natural environments. Consequently, the works evoke a sense of psychological and visual dislocation.
Artificial Worlds and Imagined Fissures
Upstairs, the exhibition shifts toward what the artist describes as the “unapologetically artificial.” Three iridescent, shell-like telephone booths, inspired by the Tropicana hotel-casino in Las Vegas, hang along the walls. When visitors lift the receivers, they hear recorded conversations between the artist and her medium. As a result, these interactions further dissolve the boundary between reality and the spectral.
In addition, smaller works depict microwaves in states of combustion, reinterpreting classical imagery such as Correggio’s Jupiter and Io through contemporary objects. By weaving together mysticism and uncertainty, the exhibition reveals what the artist calls the “fissures of the imagination,” where everyday reality begins to fracture.
Glass Slipper remains on view through April 11, 2026.