Artistes Actuels, a free bilingual web magazine and online art gallery (FR/EN), shines a light on contemporary art through artist profiles and a curated selection of accessible original works.
Artistes Actuels in Brief
Artistes Actuels curates distinctive contemporary art and makes it accessible through artist stories, editorial insight, and an online gallery. A bilingual French-English platform for discovering, appreciating, and acquiring original works.
Artistes Actuels also organizes temporary exhibitions. No payment or subscription is required to be featured or exhibited.
Our mission
Artistes Actuels highlights contemporary art by showcasing today’s artists in its free web magazine and offering a selection of original works at affordable prices in its online gallery.
Our story
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic lockdown, museums, galleries, and cultural spaces closed their doors.
Against this backdrop, one question emerged: how could independent and outsider artists gain visibility, when they are so often sidelined in the art world despite the abundance of their creativity?
Lockdown only made the answer clearer: digital had become the most immediate way to discover, follow, and engage with the artists I loved. That is how the idea came about to create a blog dedicated to contemporary art — a place to share encounters, tell artists’ stories, and bring original works into the spotlight.
2021: Artistes Actuels was founded to shine a light on contemporary art and the artists behind it through an independent, free web magazine.
The project then grew to include an online art gallery, offering a selection of original works to discover and acquire with confidence.
An English version quickly became essential to broaden its international reach.
Today, Artistes Actuels serves as an art activator: articles, artist encounters, and real-life projects such as exhibitions, all designed to build bridges between artists and art lovers.
Since 2024, Artistes Actuels has shared its monthly newsletter with its network.
How Artistes Actuels selects its artists and artworks
We select artists and artworks through genuine instinct — but never by chance. At Artistes Actuels, every choice is rooted in a strong artistic vision, a singular universe, and a real coherence between the work’s message, technique, and emotional resonance.
Our selection criteria:
Singularity & authenticity — a distinctive visual language, outside mainstream conventions.
Quality & rigor — technical mastery, finish, materials, and strength of composition.
Story & meaning — a clear artistic practice, a narrative, and a fully embraced artistic intention.
Original works — unique pieces, and occasionally numbered series or limited editions.
Accessibility — works offered at fair prices, making it possible to discover art, begin a collection, or continue building one.
A direct and sincere relationship with artists — through editorial curation and thoughtful presentation of each work.
In short: we champion living artists and original works that deserve to be seen, understood, and collected.
About Artistes Actuels’ Founder
Christine Puis-Nicot, Artistes Actuels founder
I firmly believe that art is neither a financial asset nor an industrialized product. Artistes Actuels is not an art supermarket filled with thousands of artists and artworks.
With Artistes Actuels — a media platform and curated online gallery — I champion a living contemporary art scene: less quantity, more meaning, and more encounters with artists.
Museums, exhibitions, art books, and school history textbooks were my first gateways to art and to the artists behind it. These early discoveries nurtured my interest in and curiosity about contemporary art.
Then, my encounters with gallerists helped shape and refine my perspective on contemporary art: a gallery owner in Salon-de-Provence, whose advice on choosing a work of art has always guided me; the Cheloudiakoff Gallery in Belfort and the enthusiasm of its founder, Patrick Cheloudiakoff; and Simone Nathan Ascher, who founded her gallery at the age of 56.
These exchanges confirmed for me that contemporary art plays an essential role in our lives. The works I acquired from Mrs. Nathan Ascher accompany me every day, as does the brooch she gave me, which I treasure like a small talisman.