Wake up, hide your jewels, and smell the pain au chocolat! Paris Art Week is here, and the city is pulsing with immeasurable creative fervor hot after the London art world’s moment in the limelight. From the Grand Palais, the fourth edition of Art Basel Paris functions as the racing heart of this week’s international art fair frenzy, offering a healthy blend of Old Masters, emerging artists, market favorites, and hidden stars. Nevertheless, Paris Art Week also presents a variety of satellite fairs devoted to uplifting creative expression from specific or underrepresented regions of the globe, as well as new and more intimate endeavors spawned from collaborating art dealers exploring closer interactions with each other and their audiences. Below are eight fairs and events that prove that in the City of Love, there really is something out there for everybody.
Art Basel Paris
October 24–26 | artbasel.com
Grand Palais, 3 avenue du Général Eisenhower, 75008
Xiyadie, “Don’t worry, mom is spinning thread in the next room” (2019) (image courtesy the artist and Blindspot Gallery)
A fledgeling just three years ago, Art Basel Paris now boasts its own impressive wingspan, ushering in 206 international exhibitors (including 29 first-timers) across three sectors devoted to its main exhibitors, emerging galleries and artists, and highly-curated singular presentations. Booths boasting the work of Gerhard Richter, Auguste Rodin, Louise Nevelson, Etel Adnan, and László Moholy-Nagy will be right beside those displaying Xiyadie, Jala Wahid, Salman Toor, and Nefeli Papadimouli in a bid to put the spotlight on the old, the new, the under-appreciated, and the next big thing. Expect all the bells and whistles the mind’s eye can conjure, and don’t even think about forgetting Alex Da Corte’s enormous inflatable “Kermit the Frog, Even” (2018/2025), which will float above the Place Vendôme throughout Paris Art Week as the buoy of Basel’s 2025 public programming.
Place Des Vosges
October 20–26 | place-des-vosges.com
26 Place des Vosges, 75003 Paris
Cathleen Clarke, “Bitter Winds III” (2025) (photo by Matthew Sherman; courtesy Margot Samel, New York)
Comprised of a select 11 international exhibitors this year, the Place des Vosges exhibition rings in its second iteration in the historic and architecturally revered public square in Le Marais. Expect clean displays of Tohono O’odham Nation artist Ishi Glinsky’s inlaid sculptural works via Chris Sharp Gallery, an independent presentation of Cathleen Clarke’s unbound portraiture through Margot Samel, painter Rebecca Shore’s Paris debut courtesy of Corbett Vs. Dempsey, and Ehrlich Steinberg’s rare view into Joseph Nechvatal’s linear abstractions of 1983 among other presentations in the airy, comfortable venue overlooking the manicured trees and tended lawns in the square.
7 rue Froissart
October 20–25 | 7ruefroissart.com
7 Rue Froissart, 75003 Paris
Mario Sergio Alvarez, “Two Old Dogs” (2025) (image courtesy the artist and Chilli Art Projects, London)
Initiated this year by Brigitte Mulholland, who launched her namesake Parisian gallery last year, and Sara Maria Salamone, co-founded of the Queens gallery Mrs., the show known as 7 rue Froissart (7rF) will debut as a free-entry alternative to the traditional art fair model, emphasizing equity and accessibility between both participants and perusers. Participating galleries contribute equally to shared expenses while their talents fuse through a collaborative group sculpture exhibition, and 7rF will proceed unsponsored and unbranded. This fair will engage with local artists — most notably through a hybrid performance and drag show called The Wet Gala by artist Kahlos Éphémère, which will satirize the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual benefit event.
OFFSCREEN
October 21–26 | offscreenparis.com
La Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière, 83 Bd de l’Hôpital, 75013 Paris
Portrait of Shigeko Kubota (image courtesy the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation)
Embrace experimentation through the fourth edition of OFFSCREEN, a contemporary art festival devoted to still- and moving-image practices. Nestling into its historic new venue, OFFSCREEN functions as a site-specific, tightly curated immersive exhibition of nearly 30 imaging artists presented independently by their galleries. This year, the event honors the late avant-garde artist, sculptor, and performer Shigeko Kubota, who was a major influence on the Fluxus movement and among the first creators to embrace video art in 1970, yielding an incredible and pioneering legacy of video sculptures and multi-media installations.
Upstairs Art Fair
October 22–24 | upstairsartfair.com
Hotel Grand Amour, 18 Rue de la Fidélité, 75010 Paris
India Sachi, “Mosquito Net” (2023) (image courtesy of Bureau.Art)
Crossing the Atlantic from its original digs in Amagansett, New York, the Upstairs Art Fair launches its Paris debut at the Hotel Grand Amour with participation from Half Gallery, Bureau.art, and Megan Mulrooney. Free and open to the public, Upstairs Art Fair will include a solo suite takeover by emerging artist India Sachi; site-specific group presentations co-curated by Mulrooney and one of her gallery artists, Maria Szakats; and an assorted show from Half Gallery’s artist roster, including work by Leonard Baby, Hiejin Yoo, and Andie Dinkin.
Asia NOW
October 22–26 | asianowparis.com
Monnaie de Paris, 11 Quai de Conti, 75006 Paris
Jungwon Jay Hur, “Alchemy” (2023) (image courtesy the artist and Incubator)
Entwined together under this year’s focus on “Grow,” 70 galleries channeling the creative voices across Asia and its sprawling diaspora coalesce for the eleventh edition of Asia NOW in Paris. Participants will also challenge geographical biases with the notion of “My East is Your West” in mind — especially emphasizing output from West Asian and diasporic West Asian artists in an effort to confront common generalizations of continental and regional identity. This year, Asia NOW debuts a new section, Third Space, as an avenue for experimental and collaborative work to shine. Standouts from this new endeavor include We Were Always Neighbors, a group presentation of Pakistani and Indian art curated by Sahil Arora of Mumbai’s Method Arts Space; and South Korean artist Jungwon Jay Hur’s oil and mixed-media works accompanying her enormous aquatint etching on Hanji paper via Third Born in Mexico City.
AKAA Art & Design Fair
October 24–26 | akaafair.com
Le Carreau du Temple, 4 Rue Eugène Spuller, 75003 Paris
One of several works from Martinican glass artist Robert Manscour’s ongoing Pléiade series (image courtesy the artist and La Maison Gaston)
AKAA (Also Known as Africa) celebrates its 10th anniversary with a newly appointed artistic director and 43 galleries whose presentations will contemplate the African continent and diaspora’s past, present, and future by the means of materiality. Keep an eye out for Cameroonian artist Serge Mouangue’s monumental installation in the venue’s central aisle; Martinican glass artist Robert Manscour’s inventive and abstract Pléiade series through Guadeloupe-based gallery Le Maison Gaston; and Dhakar-based Galerie Adam’s solo display of terracotta sculptures and figurines by Seyni Awa Camara, a self-taught artist in her mid-80s who fixates on femininity and maternity through an intuitive approach to pottery.
MENART Fair
October 25–27 | menart-fair.com
Galerie Joseph, 116 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris
Rula Abu Saleh, “Untitled” (2017) (image courtesy the artist and George Kamel Gallery, Damascus)
Established in 2021, this fair maintains its post as the European continent’s only art event devoted to modern and contemporary output hailing from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region. In its sixth iteration, MENART has brought on 40 galleries across 18 nations and states — including the Occupied West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, and Bahrain — in a curatorial “ode to softness” exploring the power and complexity of vulnerability. In addition to new faces like Dara Art Gallery from Khartoum, highlights will include Ramallah- and Dubai-based Zawyeh Gallery’s display of work by Palestinian artists Maisara Baroud, Sliman Mansour, Nabil Anani, and Mohamed Joha; a joint display of Iraqi and Iranian art from Fahar Al-Salih, Myriam Schahabian, and Mona Hakimi-Schüler via Yvonne Hohner Contemporary; and Lebanese photographer Serge Najjar’s surreal architectural photography in a solo presentation through Galerie Bessières.
