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Just hours before hosting a performance at the gallery she runs in Paris, Bianca Lee Vasquez throws a cosy, Latino- themed housewarming banquet at her new home – inviting her creative friends to partake in the art of joyous hospitality.

As the afternoon sun shines through the tall lattice windows in her flat on Paris’s Rue Vivenne, Bianca Lee Vasquez is kneading a salt dough. Next to her, her friend Anastasia Finders cuts yellow and purple carrots in half lengthways as a Latin American soup, caldo de pollo, simmers on an induction hob.

The artist and gallerist only moved in here four weeks ago but feels that the space is ready to let the world in. “I love having my friends around me and finally the flat is ready for me to invite them over again,” she says, as she begins to wrap one of two celery bulbs in the salt dough.

This evening provides the perfect backdrop for a housewarming. Later on, she and her partner, Masha Novoselova, will host a performance at their Saint Anne Gallery; afterwards, some friends will join the protagonist, Latvian performance artist Diana Payton, to celebrate. “For the post-performance party and simultaneous housewarming, we decided on a comforting Latino dinner,” says Vasquez, who has Cuban- Ecuadorian roots, as she grabs two thick oven mitts to take the tray of crispy purple cabbage leaves out of the oven, where they have been roasting for 45 minutes with oil, salt and sesame seeds.

Vasquez is wearing stonewashed skinny Lee jeans and a lace blouse – the very same top that her mother wore at her christening. “My mum had a fashion shop in West New York from 1985 to 1995 and she didn’t like to sort things out,” says Vasquez, who was born in New Jersey but grew up in Miami before moving to New York to study dance at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. “Now, I have many of her pieces in my wardrobe.”

Vasquez followed in her mother’s footsteps, working in fashion and launching her own accessories collection. Meeting her future husband ushered a move to Paris, where she initially worked at glass bead manufacturer Gripoix, a supplier to Chanel. „The opportunity arose to start at Chanel itself,“ she says. „Together with a colleague, I was in charge of the knitwear collection. I loved working with Karl Lagerfeld. He was so entertaining, incredibly precise and very kind.“

With that, she ties a large white linen tea towel around her waist for the rest of the kitchen work, as her co-chef Finders explains the menu. „Tonight’s meal is Mexican-inspired,“ she says. „I lived in Yucatán and am a big fan of Latin-American flavours.“ She describes how the basis of the caldo de pollo uses a poulet fermier jaune from Gers, a chicken from sustainable farming that has only been fed corn and soya (this one was bought fresh that morning from her butcher, Monsieur Jean on Rue Alexandre-Parodi). „We want to give the soup a French twist this way,“ says Finders, who has been running an agency for food events since 2014. „It will be served with sourdough bread from the Ten Belles bakery and a beurre cru de baratte made with elderflower. In my opinion, this is the best raw cream butter; it’s churned in a wooden barrel.”

In the meantime, Vasquez puts the two celeriac hearts, completely wrapped in the salt coating, into the hot oven. They will roast there for 90 minutes. “We serve the celeriac with a flavoursome sauce made from celery stalks and leaves, lemon confit, fresh raw garlic and olive oil. I make a pistachio pesto to go with the purple and yellow carrots, which also provides a nice colour contrast,” says Finders, who once worked in the sales and styling team of architect India Mahdavi. “I learned a lot from her, especially how to work with colours and materials.”

Vasquez’s own move into the art world came later in life. “The birth of my two sons changed my relationship with my body,” she says, taking a bowl of kiwis from the fridge to peel for dessert. “It gave me self-confidence and when I came across the work of [20th- century Cuban-American performance artist and sculptor] Ana Mendieta in 2014, I felt deeply touched and inspired.”

Drawing on the work of Mendieta (whose practice dealt with humans’ relationship with nature), Vasquez began responding to the artist’s Earth-body Art with her own multidisciplinary works. Using performance, photography, video, sculptures, textiles and performative installations, she staged interactions between her body and the natural world. During the coronavirus pandemic, she and Masha Novoselova founded their gallery Sainte Anne, which was recently named by the New York Times as one of the most important newcomer galleries. Here, they present their own art and works by female artists.

Vasquez sees the move from fashion to art as a natural trajectory. “Chemena Kamali, the new creative director of Chloé, launched Chloé Arts this year and is committed to promoting up-and-coming female artists. I’ve met Chemena a few times and I’d be happy to work with her,” she says.

She fetches plates from the kitchen to set the long table in the living room. White tulip chairs, designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll International, surround the table, while a rattan chair by Gio Ponti takes pride of place at the top. The two coffee tables by Mario Bellini are also creamy white. A large oil painting by Jedda-Daisy Culley – also a guest tonight – and a stuffed pink flamingo, a reminiscence of Vasquez’s Florida childhood, add a splash of colour to the room. The dessert, off-white mascarpone cream with tarragon oil, garnished with vanilla meringue bonnets and bright green kiwis, will add more colour.

For Vasquez, it’s the guests who bring vibrancy to the stylish setting. There will be plenty to talk about when we see performance artist Payton using dance, singing, electronic music and dense fog, taking her audience on an expressive journey in the Sainte Anne Gallery. „It’s the many demanding voices that surround us: do this, do that,“ says Payton, as she joins Australian painter Culley and fashion designer Kym Ellery, among others, around the dining table at Vasquez’s apartment. „I wanted to counter this with a performance.“

„I am very inspired by Diane,“ says Vasquez, pouring her guests a glass of Italian Katkoot Rosé. The talk is mainly about art but the food also becomes part of the performance. The almost metre-long sourdough bread is broken with pleasure and the salt crust on the celeriac tubers is prised open with a knife. Vasquez is in her element here in her new home, enveloped by a creative milieu. She clinks her wine glass with her fork to raise a toast.

Konfekt,
Spring 2025