Après-Midi Recap
Lori Zimmer & Maria Krasinski, Paris – November 2023
![Art Hiding in Paris Cover and copies of the book Art Hiding in Paris](https://adrianleeds.com/wp-content/uploads/Art-Hiding-in-Paris.jpg)
While Café de la Mairie is under renovation, we moved Après-Midi to Le Progès, just down the street on rue de Bretagne. Their upstairs couldn’t accommodate quite as many people, so we took reservations and had a long waiting list for almost as many seats.
In spite of the tight quarters, the session worked very well and the café was very accommodating. We’ll be presenting next month at the same café, so be sure to reserve your spot.
Meantime, Lori Zimmer and Maria Krasinski, author and illustrator of the book Art Hiding in Paris: An Illustrated Guide to the City of Light (Running Press, November 2022), who are childhood friends originally from Buffalo, New York, presented their story on how they came about writing and illustrating such a wonderful exposé of art in Paris.
With a passion for art, art history, and finding the magic in the cities they live in, the pair’s first book, Art Hiding in New York (Running Press, September 2020), was received with acclaim, and centered around the abundance of murals, public art, master paintings, sculptures, artists homes and hidden installations that are hiding in plain sight in an ever-changing Manhattan.
Their second collaborative book focused on the already art-abundant City of Light, inviting readers to explore its wonders and fascinating narratives more deeply, both historical and modern. In a slide presentation, Zimmer and Krasinski took us through the journey from their being old friends to book partners, their love of New York (where Zimmer is based) and Paris (where Krasinski is based), and their hope that their books will inspire readers to find magic in art and art history wherever they are. They presented about 30 artworks in Paris that are open to the public that we normally might pass by unnoticed. Now’s our chance to follow in their steps and see the art in the City of Light from a different point of view and appreciate it even more.
Art Hiding in Paris can be found at the gift shops in the Louvre and Centre Pompidou, as well as The Red Wheelbarrow Bookstore, Fluctuart, and Smith and Sons. Their third book together, Not Your Muse, will be published by Running Press in 2024.
Lori is a New York-based writer and author of four books including the recently published Art Hiding in Paris: An Illustrated Guide to the City of Light, which Forbes Magazine has called “The Perfect Companion for Exploring the City of Light.” Published by Running Press at the end of 2022, the book is the follow up to Art Hiding in New York: An Illustrated Guide to the City’s Secret Masterpieces, a love letter to the magic of art history in Zimmer’s home city that was published in 2020. Before focusing as a writer full time, Zimmer spent 12 years in the New York art world as an independent curator, critic, and advocate for artists’ rights. She has been a consultant and artist liaison for copyright infringement cases with the New York law firm Kushnirsky Gerber PLLC since 2015. Zimmer currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Historic Districts Council of New York City.
Maria Krasinski is an artist, educator, and the illustrator of the Art Hiding series. Her work has been described as “charming,” “whimsical,” and “playful” (as well as the technically-correct “just pencil drawings” from one Amazon reviewer). A graduate of the University of Chicago, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tbilisi, Georgia, where the Art Hiding collaboration was born when Lori came to visit in 2018. Now based in Paris, Maria runs a nonprofit news and media literacy platform for young people around the world, while running up all the stairs in Montmartre. In 2022, Maria achieved the lifelong goal of Johnny Gilbert saying her name on national television when she finished in second place on Jeopardy! (never mind that she got a French art history clue wrong).
The session was recorded, so you don’t have to miss it! Click here to watch.
Lori’s website
Maria’s website
Highlights
In attendance:
To read more, click the links below.