Located in the heart of Paris with the reopening of the Grand Palais, Art Basel this year stands out not only as a place of trade but also as a space of cultural rebirth. The fair, which blends the city’s artistic memory with market dynamics, is charting a new direction for Europe’s contemporary art scene.
The international gathering of contemporary art in Paris, Art Basel Paris, opens its doors for the fourth time this year. The fair, which will be held at the Grand Palais from October 24–26, will have its VIP preview days on October 22–23. 203 galleries from 40 countries are coming together, including 25 new participants from Europe, Asia, and America. The fact that this year marks the second edition at the Grand Palais once again reveals the central role Paris plays in art. Previous events were held in the temporary structure Grand Palais Éphémère, and the fair has now established a rooted place in Paris’s cultural landscape.
Participants and Sectors
More than one-third of the participants consist of Paris-based galleries. Local names such as Mennour, Templon, and Semiose will be accompanied by international galleries such as Blum and Sprüth Magers. Artists with close ties to Paris—such as Lebanese-American Simone Fattal and young French-Israeli painter Nathanaëlle Herbelin—will stand out at the fair. Art Basel Paris Director Clément Delépine says that the 2025 selection “once again reveals the appeal of Art Basel Paris and the importance of Paris in the international art world.”
The fair will welcome visitors in three sectors: Galeries, Emergence, and Premise.
Solo, duo, and group presentations of leading modern and contemporary galleries will be included in the Galeries sector; rising artists such as Mira Mann and Xiyadie will be shown with solo projects in the Emergence sector. Premise will host concept-focused presentations, and Korean artist Lee ShinJa’s textile works will be presented by Tina Kim Gallery.
Public Program and Art in the City
During Art Basel Paris week, major institutions in the city will also organize simultaneous exhibitions. Musée d’Orsay will host Georges Seurat; Musée Picasso will host Philip Guston; and Fondation Louis Vuitton will host a Gerhard Richter retrospective. The newly opened spaces of Fondation Cartier, the Minimalism exhibition at Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, and the exhibitions of George Condo, Otobong Nkanga, and the nominees of the Prix Marcel Duchamp at the Musée d’Art Moderne will complete the fair experience.
The Public Program will be offered to audiences for free in nine different venues across Paris. The Helen Marten project 30 Blizzards. supported by Miu Miu will be located at Palais d’Iéna; Alex Da Corte’s Kermit the Frog, Even (2018) will be at Place Vendôme; and Avenue Winston Churchill will be devoted to works by Thomas Houseago, Leiko Ikemura, Wang Keping, Vojtěch Kovařík, Muller Van Severen, Stefan Rinck, and Arlene Shechet. Other projects include Harry Nuriev’s Objets Trouvés (2025), Ugo Rondinone’s the innocent (2024) installations, and a site-specific work by Nate Lowman.
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine joins the program with two exhibitions: Mute, a solo show by Fabienne Verdier, and the group exhibition Chromoscope.
Fashion, Talks, and Events
The ‘Oh La La!’ initiative offers a special area emphasizing the intersection of fashion and art. This year’s theme is ‘À la mode’. In presentations realized under the art direction of Loïc Prigent, the relationship between contemporary art and fashion will be explored through style, clothing, and identity.
Special tours will also be offered to visitors in collaboration with Airbnb.
The Conversations program, which will take place at Petit Palais on October 23–25, will consist of 13 panels. Panels led by Edward Enninful OBE will discuss the cultural impacts of the 1990s and the relationships between art and the artist of that era. Tyler Mitchell and Clothilde Morette will examine the role of photography in cultural memory, while Kiddy Smile and Josèfa Ntjam will explore the power of cinema and narrative in collective resistance.
