Jean-David Malat

Born in Paris in 1975, Jean-David Malat is a renowned art dealer and gallerist, founder of JD Malat Gallery who currently resides in London, United Kingdom.

Early life
Malat grew up in a Paris suburb with his parents and sisters. His father was a furrier and his mother worked as a bookseller. In his childhood, he discovered his love for art when he visited museums such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre with his family.

Early career
Before starting a career in the international art world, Jean-David Malat worked across various industries. He started out as a model and developed an acting career in France. Later, during an event in which he met French designer Jean-Claude Jitrois, he began working in the fashion industry in Jitrois’ boutique on Rue Saint Honoré.

In 2000, Malat came to London and started living here. He began working as a sales assistant at a fashion boutique on Sloane Street. However, he realised that the fashion industry wasn’t his long-term calling. During a visit to Tate Britain, Jean-David Malat ignited his interest in art after seeing the Francis Bacon exhibition. He later joined a commercial gallery, working as a sales assistant in 2005 which marked the beginning of the art dealer’s journey in the industry.

During his early art career, Malat once focused on sales in the secondary market, with notable sales of works by Picasso, Renoir, Bacon, and Chagall. He worked in a commercial gallery until 2017, and then he founded his own eponymous gallery.

JD Malat Gallery
Situated on 30 Davies Street, London, the French art dealer opened his own gallery JD Malat Gallery in June 2018. The gallery focuses on nurturing emerging artists as well as presenting established artists with a dynamic roster of programmes and exhibitions. Specialising in contemporary art, the gallery represents over 20 international artists from a diverse range of media, from sculpture and painting to video and photography. The gallery has a permanent location in Mayfair, London and has previously showcased its programme at pop-up spaces in New York, USA and St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Henrik Uldalen: Metanoia

Jean-David Malat opened the Mayfair gallery with the exhibition ‘Metanoia’ by Henrik Uldalen, a Korean-Norwegian artist that the French gallerist discovered through Instagram. The exhibition opened to the public on 11 June, featuring seventeen new oil paintings by the London-based artist. Henrik Uldalen, born in South Korea in 1986 and raised in Norway, is a self-taught artist best known for his oil paintings that combine classical figurative style with expressionist influences and a contemporary vision.

Though many of his paintings are imbued with a sense of melancholy, ‘Metanoia’ represents a transformation in both the artist and his work. This new collection embraces a kind of letting go. The artist works in oils to create deeply atmospheric depictions of human figures obscured by thick layers of impasto, for an effect that is both otherworldly and emotionally familiar.

Isolation Mastered

In 2020, JD Malat launched a new group exhibition titled 'Isolation Mastered', which gave aspiring artists of all ages and backgrounds an opportunity to showcase and sell their artwork in one of London's leading galleries. All profits made from the Isolation Mastered exhibition were directed to each artist. They received over 1,000 submissions and featured 25 artists in the exhibition, selecting artists who demonstrated innovative dialogue with the lockdown period. 8,000 public votes selected 5 top artists, with Marina Gonzalez winning a solo exhibition at the Gallery in 2021 and Andrew Litten and Kojo Marfo being added to the JD Malat Gallery artist roster.

Ferus: A Visual Conversation

In September 2022, JD Malat opened the group show ‘Ferus: A Visual Conversation’ which showcased never-before-seen artworks by Billy Al Bengston (b.1934), John Altoon (1925 - 1969), Ed Moses (1926 - 2018), Craig Kauffman (1932 - 2010) and Giorgio Morandi (1890 - 1964). Co-curated by Dr. Richard Davey and Annie Pereira, the exhibition was dedicated to the artistic relationships that flourished within the Ferus Gallery, and Jean-David Malat wished to examine the centrality of visual exchange amongst these established figures during the 1950s and 1960s.

List of Represented Artists:

Celine Ali

Sophie-Yen Bretez

Georg Óskar Giannakoudakis

Emily Gillbanks

Conrad Jon Godly

Erin Holly

Ur Kasin

Yann Leto

Andrew Litten

Kojo Marfo

Andy Moses

Ed Moses

Masayoshi Nojo

Natalia Ocerin

Ayanfe Olarinde

Luis Olaso

Santiago Parra

Darren Reid

Hande Şekerciler

Henrik Uldalen

Ming Ying

Family life
Jean-David Malat has two sons and he recently divorced in 2023.