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Observer’s Guide to the Must-See Paris Art Week Shows

As Art Basel Paris brings the international art world to the French capital, the city’s expanding cultural ecosystem has mounted an impressive lineup of exhibitions. From Barbara Kruger’s intervention at the Bourse de Commerce and Ibrahim Mahama’s takeover of Fondation Cartier to new presentations of work by Kennedy Yanko, Lee Krasner and Kerry James Marshall, these are the shows worth making time for.

Following London's busy art week, the French capital reclaims the spotlight, showcasing an ever-expanding ecosystem of galleries, institutions, fairs and private foundations. The latest arrival is Large, an art center backed by Groupe Emerige—with mega-collector Laurent Dumas as president—that turns a former Renault industrial site on Île Seguin into a cultural destination. Art Basel Paris, which draws international collectors and art world insiders to the city each fall, has also become deeply embedded in the local scene, extending its public program into the surrounding streets and gardens and partnering with institutions across the capital to turn fair week into a genuinely citywide event.

Buoyed by the post-Brexit effect and the arrival of Art Basel, the French art market has grown increasingly confident. Sales reached $4.5 billion last year, up 9 percent from 2024, making France the largest art market in the European Union and the fourth largest globally. With a packed Paris Art Week ahead, we've selected 10 must-see exhibitions you should make time for in between the dinners, the fairs and the flânerie.

The best art in Paris right now

u0022Imaginary Engineu0022

u0022Remember Meu0022

Thomas Houseago x Théo Mercier

Kennedy Yanko's u0022Ce qui nous rassembleu0022

Yu Nishimura's u0022Towards a Seau0022

Ibrahim Mahama's u0022The Harvest Seasonu0022

u003cbru003eDaisuke Fukunaga's u0022Waiting as Time Shiftsu0022

Lee Bae's u0022Attendingu0022

Lee Krasner's u0022Works from the 60su0022

Kerry James Marshall and Simone Fattal at MAM

u0022Imaginary Engineu0022

u003cstrongu003eLargeu003c/strongu003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003eThrough March 7, 2027u003cbru003eu003c/strongu003e

Large opened to the public last week, anchoring a new cultural district on Île Seguin in Greater Paris and becoming a point of reference for French contemporary artists. For its inaugural show, the center devotes its entire 2,500-square-meter exhibition space to “Imaginary Engine: From Masterpieces of the Collection Renault to Artists of Today.” Curated by Cecilia Alemani and organized in collaboration with the Fonds Renault pour l'Art et la Culture, the exhibition explores the relationship between humans and machines, particularly cars, a theme rooted in the history of a site once occupied by the automaker's factories. Structured in five chapters—“The Factory of My Thoughts,” “Social Bodies,” “Motor Forces,” “Objects of Desire” and “The Human Machine”—the show examines both the industrial utopias of the 20th Century and the technological and social transformations that have revolutionized and continue to reshape contemporary life.u003cbru003e

u0022Remember Meu0022

u003cstrongu003ePinault Collection - Bourse De Commerceu003c/strongu003eu003cbru003eu003cstrongu003eThrough January 18, 2027u003c/strongu003e

To celebrate the bicentenary of the invention of photography, the Pinault........

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