Art Basel Paris is back under the glass roof of the Grand Palais, and fair week starts today. The invitation-only Avant-Première for galleries and their top clients runs on Tuesday, October 20, preview days follow on October 21 and 22, the Vernissage opens on the afternoon of Thursday, October 22, and the public days run Friday, October 23 through Sunday, October 25. This is the fifth edition and the first under new director Karim Crippa, and it anchors one of the biggest weeks on the Paris art calendar.
211 galleries under one roof
The 2026 fair brings together 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories across three sectors. Galeries, the main sector, has 183 Modern, post-war and contemporary dealers, from Paris names like Perrotin, Templon, Chantal Crousel, Mennour and Almine Rech to global heavyweights including Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, White Cube and Thaddaeus Ropac. Emergence gives 16 solo booths to younger practices on the balconies of the central Nave, and Premise, the sector for research-led projects and overlooked histories, moves into the larger Salon Seine with 12 galleries. Around 30 exhibitors are showing at Art Basel Paris for the first time, and a record 12 pairs of galleries are sharing booths.
A few presentations already stand out in the official press dossier. Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi is showing fourteen photographs by Nobel Prize winning author Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie, the images behind their book L'Usage de la photo. Mendes Wood DM brings new work by Pol Taburet alongside sculptures by Julien Creuzet, and Galerie Anne Barrault has new pieces made for the fair by four young Paris artists.
Art across the city
The fair spills well beyond the Grand Palais. Its Public Program spreads across nine venues, with Miu Miu as official partner. Miu Miu presents Geste de Consolation, filmmaker Alice Diop's first exhibition, at the Palais d'Iéna from October 21 to 25, bringing together Zanele Muholi, Mary Lee Bendolph, Simone Leigh and performances across four spaces. Three monumental Tracey Emin bronzes, presented by White Cube, stand on the Parvis des Droits de l'Homme at the Trocadéro through November 1.
Elsewhere, Robert Indiana's Cor-Ten steel LOVE Wall takes over Place Clemenceau, Cosima von Bonin's plush sea creatures and dogs move into the Petit Palais, and Kutluğ Ataman's 40-screen video installation Küba fills the Chapelle des Petits-Augustins at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. Avenue Winston-Churchill becomes an open-air sculpture walk with works by Niki de Saint Phalle, Yinka Shonibare, Alicja Kwade, Carmen Herrera and others, plus Marcello Maloberti's neon CIEL hanging about 20 metres above the street.
Talks and a rehang
Conversations, Art Basel's talks program, moves into the Grand Palais Auditorium this year, and all panels are free and open to the public. Highlights include Simone Fattal with Hans Ulrich Obrist and artist one-on-ones with Zanele Muholi and Ibrahim Mahama. Oh La La!, the fair's rehang where galleries swap in new works on Friday and Saturday, is art directed by actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu around the theme Myths and Legends. Tickets for the public days are sold through the Art Basel Paris site, with day, evening and permanent options.
Our call
This one is Surfacing. Even if you never set foot inside the fair, the free Public Program turns central Paris into an open gallery this week, from Tracey Emin at the Trocadéro to a LOVE sculpture on the Champs-Élysées side of town. If you can get inside, go for the Grand Palais itself, then catch a free talk in the new auditorium.
Want more big shows? Read about Myths and Monsters at M+, the LACMA Art+Film Gala and Lita Albuquerque at the Palm Springs Art Museum.
Art Basel Paris · Exhibitor list · Press dossier · Grand Palais
