Amphi Gallery is pleased to present The First Garden, a solo exhibition of new works by Paulin Paris. Born in Paris and based in California since 2000, Paulin Paris’s practice is deeply informed by philosophy, travel, and sustained encounters with nature.

Grounded in Paris’s guiding philosophy, “Art is Life,” the exhibition brings together painting, pattern, and surface to create a world that is meant not only to be viewed, but inhabited. Central to the exhibition is Paris’s ongoing Tapis de feuilles series—large-scale works inspired by the forest floor, where scattered leaves form rhythmic, meditative fields of color. At first glance, these paintings read as lush abstractions or decorative carpets; with time, small faces emerge from the foliage, subtly returning the viewer’s gaze. As Paris notes, “Looking at the leaves, you realize they are looking back at you.” The works invite reflection on consciousness, presence, and our reciprocal relationship with the natural world, while blurring boundaries between fine art and interior surface.

The exhibition is curated by Sabine Paris, the artist’s daughter, who holds a degree in Art History from Bard College and has grown up with a deep, firsthand understanding of Paulin Paris’s work and evolving practice.

Through its exploration of nature as both origin and environment, The First Garden offers an immersive, poetic vision in which art and life are inseparable, and the natural world is both refuge and interlocutor.