At the Sceners Gallery on the eastern edge of Paris, far from the Metropolitan Museum, where Kim Kardashian arrived at the Met Gala in a metallic orange breastplate with pert breasts and curvaceous hips, there are several examples of the art that inspired her.
There’s “Red Refrigerator,” a perfectly coiffed mannequin in a painted-on burgundy catsuit suspended in a mini fridge cabinet. There’s “Cover Story 4/4,” a full-body fiberglass version of Kardashian’s piece in lemon yellow fading to fleshy lilac and anchored by a gleaming bronze bar outlining the back silhouette. Then there’s “Kind of Blue,” a petite, nude figure with painted-on thigh-highs, orange stilettos, and blue eye shadow standing in front of an abstract painting in a wash of similar colors.
These pneumatic, eroticized replicas of the female body, reframed as decorative art, are the work of Allen Jones, a prominent figure in the British Pop Art scene who remains active today. He has been a source of intrigue in the fashion world—inspiring the likes of Thierry Mugler and Rick Owens—since well before Kardashian reached out to him for her 13th appearance at the annual Met Gala. The fiberglass component was re-edited from a cast dating back to 1967/68; the straps and leather skirt were executed by Patric Whitaker and Keir Malem of Whitaker Malem; and the brushstrokes were added directly by Jones.
Three weeks ago, Sceners debuted “Forms and Temptations,” an exhibition in collaboration with Almine Rech, a blue-chip gallery with locations in major cities around the world. Jones, who will turn 89 later this year, came for the vernissage from his home in England. He then traveled to New York and appeared in Vogue’s video documenting Kim’s fitting two days before the event, chuckling, “We will make this a unique moment.”
Open since 2024, Sceners is something of a hidden wonder. Near the Pere Lachaise Cemetery and above an Aldi supermarket, the skylit space was once a manufacturer for mechanical toys that co-founder Jonathan Haddad spent two years converting into a vast open plan with a feature wall that echoes the oxidized bronzes of Richard Serra.
Haddad, 28, previously ran a design studio in Antwerp before launching this gallery project with partner David Atlan. Their focus is the intersection of design and decorative art in the secondary market, and they don’t simply exhibit rarefied and coveted pieces, but present them with a collector-minded sensibility. What makes the display of Jones’s works so interesting is the furniture juxtapositions that offset his hyper-feminine work with more masculine shapes and statements.
