Janet Olivia Henry, Neggerotti Melodrama (Claude), 1983. Courtesy Gordon Robichaux, New York and STARS, Los Angeles.
A vibrant momentum despite global uncertainties and political turnoil.
The new “Avant-Première” section proved a lifeline for many galleries this year, offering a more intimate format that a select few collectors were able to preview as early as Tuesday.
The “golden square” of the Grand Palais remains a clear indicator of market power and in this arena, the American galleries reign supreme: Matthew Marks Gallery, Pace, Gladstone Gallery, Marian Goodman, Lisson, Michael Werner, and Paula Cooper, joined by European heavyweights such as Sprüth Magers (Berlin, London), Hauser & Wirth (Zurich), and Max Hetzler (London, Berlin). Only Perrotin and Kamel Mennour represent France within this exclusive circle. Even a “Salon Detroit” pays homage to several artists from that vibrant scene.
Among the major institutional shows in the city, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris rolls out the red carpet for the prolific New York artist George Condo, in a baroque display of excess and exuberance.
Paris, meanwhile, has taken on the air of a giant Monopoly board, divided among the world’s most influential actors, if one reads the outdoor public program carefully. On a lighter note, Qatar Airways’ lounge, complete with immaculate hostesses beneath the Grand Palais glass roof, adds a touch of high-flying glamour.
Fashion gets its moment too: Takashi Murakami’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton shines through with spectacular octopus-shaped sculptures and “collectible” handbags displayed under glass, museum-style, targeting Gen Z, the new generation of captive collectors. Loïc Prigent, ever the sharp-eyed chronicler of fashion and culture, curates the “Oh La La!” program, while Miu Miu supports Turner Prize–winning British artist Helen Marten’s ambitious installation at the Palais d’Iéna, a hybrid of performance and video exploring the stages of a woman’s life.
Back at the Grand Palais, several galleries deliver standout moments: Neugerriemschneider (Berlin) with a Lego tableau by Ai Weiwei; Pace with an exceptional 1918 Modigliani; Victoria Miro showing a fluorescent tapestry Marie-Antoinette by Grayson Perry; Lia Rumma (Milan) with Egyptian artist Wael Shawky, recently named artistic director of Art Basel Qatar; and a joint presentation by Michael Rosenfeld and Jeffrey Deitch, pairing American painter Bob Thompson, a Paris-based figure of the Beat generation with female sculptor Karon Davis.
Collaborations between galleries are increasingly common, a sign of both creative solidarity and a pragmatic response to rising costs and a tightening market.
Must sees :
The Approach (London) : Paloma Proudfoot
The British artist, born in 1992, is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, London.
Paloma Proudfoot blends sculpture, garment-making, writing, and performance to weave together personal narratives, historical references, and reflections on contemporary culture. Through her work, she explores the expressive potential of materials to give form to elusive emotions transforming them into layered metaphors and stories.
Paloma Proudfoot is also represented by the French gallery (sans titre), whose founder Marie Madec whom I interviewed [link] is participating to Art Basel Paris (main sector).
Lodovico Corsini gallery (Bruxelles) : Meriem Bennani
Now striking out on his own following the closure of Clearing gallery after a decade of success, Lodovico Corsini makes his first appearance at Art Basel Paris with Moroccan artist Meriem Bennani, who is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations. Transforming the space into a resonant chamber for her tap-dance orchestra, Bennani playfully subverts the conventions of the exhibition format, offering a witty and incisive reflection on collective life and the gestures and symbols that bind us together.
The Gallery of Everything (London) : Hector Hyppolite
Widely hailed as the spiritual father of Haitian art, Hector Hyppolite was a third-generation Vodou priest whose vivid depictions of island spirituality left a lasting mark on generations of artists. He was first recognized in 1944 by writer Philippe Thoby-Marcelin, later championed by Dewitt Peters at the Centre d’Art d’Haïti, and embraced by French Surrealist André Breton. Much of Hyppolite’s life remains shrouded in mystery. While he is perhaps best known for his religious fantasies, these were far from the only subjects he explored.
Janet Olivia Henry, The Male Art Dependent, 1984-2025. Avec l’aimable autorisation de Gordon Robichaux, New York et STARS, Los Angeles.
Gordon Robichaux (New York) et STARS (Los Angeles) : Janet Olivia Henry
A lifelong educator and activist, Janet Olivia Henry turns to storytelling and play as radical acts of liberation, using them to challenge the structures of gender, race, and class in American life.
Through collecting and assemblage, she reclaims these practices as forms of resistance and narrative-making.
Ella Bergmann-Michel, Sans titre, 1960. © Bertrand Michau. Courtesy : Galerie Eric Mouchet.
Galerie Eric Mouchet (Paris) : Ella Bergmann-Michel
One of the most striking aspects of this major artist’s career is the erasure she experienced within the mainstream narrative of art history. Occasionally rediscovered but never fully recognized, Ella Bergmann-Michel exemplifies the dynamics of art historiography through her multidisciplinary practice, which spans socially engaged drawings, films, and photographs. Despite having a strong professional network, she lived relatively isolated in the Taunus, was forbidden to work or exhibit during World War II, and, likely in part because she was a woman, was never placed at the center of public attention.
She created images that incorporate complex, sometimes enigmatic systems. Her drawings evoke electrical circuits and organic structures, forming chains of associations deeply influenced by Surrealism.
Marie Bracquemond, Sur la terrasse de la Chabane,1870-1885. Coutesy Pavec. Credit Aurélien Mole
Pauline Pavec (Paris) : Marie Bracquemond
Long overshadowed by her husband, painter Félix Bracquemond, who reportedly resented her talent, Marie Bracquemond (1840–1916) now stands as a major figure of Impressionism alongside Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt. Restricted by the patriarchal codes of her time, she turned her gaze toward scenes of intimacy and domestic life, finding in them a quiet yet radical strength. This solo presentation marks a bold curatorial choice—one that quickly proves its worth.
Petrine (Paris) : Sophie Kovel
Sophie Kovel unveils a new body of work titled Donations and Estates, a series of photographs and sculptures that extends her ongoing exploration of iconography and its endurance across time and geography. The project turns its lens on the dazzling jewels housed in Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum and in private collections, probing how institutions of collecting construct narratives of cultural philanthropy, diplomacy, and class aspiration.
In Donations and Estates, Kovel focuses on the extensive gifts made to the Smithsonian by Marjorie Merriweather Post, alongside views of Post’s opulent private residence, once a stage for diplomatic gatherings. As the heir to the Post Cereals fortune, Post amassed a legendary jewelry collection—including pieces from pre-revolutionary France once owned by Marie Antoinette, as well as treasures from imperial Britain and Russia—embodying the complex intersections of wealth, power, and cultural heritage.
Drei gallery (Cologne) : Mira Mann
Drei’s firts participation to Basel Paris with a solo installation of Mira Mann (b. 1993, Frankfurt)
The installation Objects of the Wind draws on the Korean musical tradition of pungmul, brought to Germany by nurses as a way of maintaining a connection to their homeland.
Visitors are confronted not only with their own reflection within the exhibition space but also with a scene that hints at remnants of past performances. Traditional Korean instruments sit on the mirror’s ledge, photographs of unidentified performances are attached to its surface, and references to a German-Korean nurses’ group appear through the mist where the mirror has been etched away with acid.
For the artist, storytelling functions as a medium for mapping social frameworks, preserving collective memory, and shaping alternative narratives.
Practical Infos :
Art Basel Paris
October 23-26, 2025
Grand Palais
Day Ticket €45
Reduced Ticket € 30
