Paris rarely does things by halves. As Art Basel Paris returned for its fifth edition, the city was still reckoning with a weekend of widespread protests over living costs and public services, some of which descended into clashes, looting, and violence. Heightened security surrounded the fair, and some collectors reportedly reconsidered their travel plans. Yet inside the soaring glass-and-steel halls of the Grand Palais, the mood was decidedly upbeat, with busy aisles, ambitious presentations, and collectors seemingly eager to do business.
“This opening afternoon has been very strong, and collectors came ready to make decisions quickly,” said gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac. “Despite any worries about the demonstrations, some deciding not to travel to Paris, we already feel that it’s the most international art fair of the year.”
There was plenty to support that optimism. Hauser & Wirth reported two major sales in the region of $10 million each: Gerhard Richter’s Rokokotisch (Rococo Table) (1965) and Georg Baselitz’s Der Hirte (The Shepherd) (1965). These heavyweight transactions provided a strong early indication of collector appetite.
Under new director Karim Crippa, this year’s edition features 211 galleries from 41 countries and territories, including 32 newcomers. Its expanded footprint includes a new entrance and a larger Premise sector, dedicated to historically overlooked artistic practices, while public artworks spill out onto the streets surrounding the Grand Palais.
For Crippa, the guiding principle this year is “desire.” In an interview with Artsy ahead of the fair, he described his ambition to cultivate “the desire to discover new work that you haven’t been confronted with before,” while positioning Art Basel Paris as a cultural rendezvous that extends beyond the art market.
Now in its second year, Art Basel Paris’s Avant Première day—an exclusive early preview for invited collectors and VVIPs ahead of the fair’s official VIP opening—felt noticeably busier than its debut. American accents were particularly conspicuous among the international crowd filling the Grand Palais, though the atmosphere remained measured rather than frenzied. “Today was busier than last year, but the pace felt calmer,” Nicolas Nahab, co-founder of art advisory NG Partners, told Artsy. “Collectors are taking time to look closely and reconnect with why they collect, which is very healthy.”
Beyond the fair, Paris is buzzing with major museum exhibitions, standout gallery shows, and a constellation of satellite fairs, giving visiting collectors plenty of reasons to extend their stay.
Here are Artsy’s 10 best booths from the fair.
With works by M’barek Bouhchichi, Jellel Gasteli, Jessica Boubetra, Sebastián Espejo, Nadia Nejma Ayari, Monia Ben Hamouda, Baya, Sara Ouhaddou, Nidhal Chamekh, Elena Damiani, Aymen Mbarki, and Yann Lacroix.
Paintings, sculptures, and photography fill Selma Feriani’s booth, where 12 artists explore themes of cultural memory, identity, and the natural world.
Among the highlights is Jessica Boubetra’s Hybrid Orders I (2025), a towering column of glazed stoneware and lacquered steel: These twisting, biomorphic forms are otherworldly. Nearby, M’barek Bouhchichi’s Stick charts 2 (2025), made from brass casts of eucalyptus branches and cowrie shells, references histories of migration and trade across North Africa. A quieter counterpoint comes from Jellel Gasteli’s intimate black-and-white photographs of Mediterranean gardens, taken around 1980, which transform dense foliage into studies of light and shadow.
Elsewhere, Chilean artist Sebastián Espejo presents tactile still-life paintings. Incorporating unconventional materials such as crushed seashells, marble dust, mica, and cold wax, his still lifes of bottles, glasses, and other everyday objects are richly textured and almost sculptural. Prices range from €4,000 ($4,500) to €40,000 ($44,900).
Booth 0.B25
With works by Alice Neel, Sherrie Levine, Nicolas Party, Tatiana Trouvé, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Houseago, Richard Aldrich, Charline von Heyl, Lesley Vance, Qiu Xiaofei, Louise Bourgeois, and Nathanaëlle Herbelin
At Xavier Hufkens’s booth, some of Art Basel Paris’s VIP visitors were spotted taking a well-earned rest on Tatiana Trouvé’s enormous Sitting Sculpture (2024). Measuring more than three meters long, the painted aluminum bench resembles a series of pale, crumpled sheets draped over rough stone supports, with ragged edges and darkened crevices. It’s the centerpiece of the Brussels gallery’s refreshingly spacious booth, where each work has plenty of room to breathe.
Outside the booth, Sterling Ruby’s FLOWER (9203) (2026) offers another unusual take on a familiar form. The ceramic wall sculpture of a weathered blossom—its lumpy petals covered in cracked, mottled glazes of blue, green, and earthy brown—reflects Ruby’s longstanding fascination with material transformation and industrial forms.
Among the quieter works is Nathanaëlle Herbelin’s Boys, man (2026), a small, softly rendered painting depicting two figures grappling on a mattress, seemingly caught in a playful tussle. Elsewhere, works by Alice Neel, Nicolas Party, and Sherrie Levine round out the presentation.
“There’s something about Paris: its contradictions, its restless energy, its ability to surprise you at every turn,” gallery founder Xavier Hufkens told Artsy. “Fluctuat nec mergitur [Rocked by the waves, but never sunk], as the city’s motto goes. It feels particularly fitting this week.” The booth also saw brisk opening-day sales, led by a painting by Charline von Heyl for $475,000.
With works by Ugo Rondinone, Lee Ufan, Alicja Kwade, Tavares Strachan, Théo Mercier, Mohamed Bourouissa, Daniel Buren, Anish Kapoor, Yayoi Kusama, Germaine Richier, Manoucher Yektai, Francis Picabia, Sonia Delaunay, Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Félix Vallotton, and Henri Matisse
Towering above the surrounding booths at the Grand Palais, Ugo Rondinone’s monumental stone figure the angelic (2024) makes Mennour’s presentation hard to miss. Composed of roughly hewn, stacked stone blocks, the sculpture resembles a prehistoric sentinel, observing the throngs of VIPs beneath it. Behind the figure hangs Manoucher Yektai’s Untitled (1962), a vigorous abstract painting whose thick, sweeping strokes of blue, green, and white offer a lively contrast to Rondinone’s imposing stone forms.
“It’s always a pleasure to be back at the Grand Palais, in our city!” founder Kamel Mennour told Artsy. “This year, we divided our booth into two parts, one contemporary with artists such as Alicja Kwade, Tavares Strachan, [and] Théo Mercier, and one with master artists from the 20th century such as Francis Picabia, Alexander Calder, and Henri Matisse.”
A standout of the contemporary section is Kwade’s Siège du Monde (2026), an enormous sphere of pale blue-and-white stone that rests precariously on a wooden chair, its monumental weight at odds with the delicate furniture beneath it. Nearby, Anish Kapoor’s Random Triangle Mirror (2026)—a reflective stainless steel work—proved a magnet for visitors taking kaleidoscopic selfies, their faces and surroundings fractured into distorted reflections.
There were plenty of highlights in the historical section’s impressive roster of modern masters, too. Among them is Sonia Delaunay’s Rythme couleur (1973), a vibrant geometric painting of colorful intersecting curves that exemplifies her fascination with the interplay of shape and hue. Together, the two sections offer a compelling dialogue between modern and contemporary art—a fine example of what Art Basel does best. Prices for works at the booth start at €250,000 ($281,000) and rise to more than €2 million ($2.25 million).
With works by Beauford Delaney and Alteronce Gumby
More than seven decades after Beauford Delaney moved from New York to Paris in 1953, a remarkable selection of his paintings has returned to the French capital. At Art Basel Paris, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and Jeffrey Deitch have joined forces to present a survey of the American artist’s work, tracing its evolution from expressive cityscapes to luminous abstractions, alongside new works by contemporary artist Alteronce Gumby.
Among the highlights of Delaney’s works is Untitled (Greene Street) (1950), a richly textured New York streetscape that captures his early modernist style. By contrast, Chartres (1954), painted shortly after his arrival in France, shows his shift to abstraction. Inspired by visits to Chartres Cathedral and its stained-glass windows, the painting marks a pivotal moment in his development. Elsewhere, Untitled (Yellow Light Swirling) (ca. 1962) exemplifies Delaney’s mature style, with radiant yellow brushstrokes dissolving recognizable forms, such as branches, into a shimmering field of color.
Speaking to Artsy, Michael Rosenfeld traced Delaney’s fascination with light to his early artistic encounters with Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. In Monet, he explained, Delaney found an “extraordinary lyrical, spiritual, uplifting quality of light,” Rosenfeld said. “When he arrives in France, he really starts to paint these abstractions, which distill nature and light.” For Delaney, Rosenfeld explained, the pursuit was as much spiritual as artistic: “He’s after an ecstatic light, a sense of God, you might even say.”
The presentation brings Delaney’s paintings into dialogue with eight new works by Gumby, whose glittering compositions incorporate gemstones, mirrors, and resin. Prices for Delaney’s paintings range from approximately $400,000 to $4.5 million, with works on paper starting at $160,000.
With works by Carsten Höller, Matthew Wong, Yan Pei-Ming, Sanford Biggers, Elmgreen & Dragset, and France-Lise McGurn
A curtain and a prominent safety warning stand before MASSIMODECARLO’s booth, where an installation by Carsten Höller awaits visitors willing to brave its flashing lights. Inside, 7,8 Hz (Vitrine With Golden Fly Agaric Mushrooms) (2019) brings together gleaming gold-colored mushrooms arranged on a stepped red display, accompanied by a disorienting flickering light. Certainly one way to awaken a sleep-deprived VIP.
Elsewhere, the booth flits between fine examples from the stalwart gallery’s roster. On the booth’s exterior, Sanford Biggers’s Unsui (Duet) (2026) features two cloud-shaped sculptures made from shimmering sequins and felt. Hanging above visitors on the booth’s wall is Elmgreen & Dragset’s The Critic (Trompe-l’oeil) (2026), a painted wooden vulture sculpture that looks vaguely menacing from below. On the back wall, several paintings stand out, including France-Lise McGurn’s luminous large-scale Big Plans (2026), and Yan Pei-Ming’s L’Exécution de l’empereur Maximilien, après Manet (2026). The latter revisits Édouard Manet’s famous execution scene, depicting revolutionary soldiers firing their rifles at Mexico’s Emperor Maximilian, here rendered in a red-pink palette that emphasizes the scene’s violence. A quieter but equally arresting highlight is Matthew Wong’s Shaft of Light (2016), a small, tender painting depicting a dark woodland interrupted by a diagonal beam of pale pink light.
“We usually do our best for Paris, because we think that now is the most important European fair,” founder Massimo De Carlo told Artsy, noting that the gallery strives to bring a representative selection regardless of scale. “Paris deserves our best selection.” Works are priced “largely” between €50,000 ($56,200) and €250,000 ($280,800), according to the gallerist, with the Wong painting approaching $1 million.
With works by Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Walter Dahn, Sylvie Fleury, John Baldessari, Frank Stella, George Condo, Rosemarie Trockel, Kara Walker, Louise Lawler, Arthur Jafa, Ed Ruscha, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Alighiero Boetti, Donald Judd, Anne Imhof, Cyprien Gaillard, Hyun-Sook Song, Lucy Dodd, Henni Alftan, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Scheibitz, Michail Pirgelis, David Salle, Kaari Upson, and Salvo.
Visitors entering the Grand Palais are immediately confronted by Barbara Kruger’s enormous vinyl print Untitled (Forget to remember) (2024), its stark black-and-white lettering reading “forget to remember” mounted on the exterior of Sprüth Magers’s booth. The wordplay continues just beyond it, where Sylvie Fleury’s painting pleasures (1990) repeats its titular word across alternating black and pink stripes. Meanwhile, Fleury’s sculpture Patrick & Piet & Josef (I) (1996) presents a pair of white slingback heels accented in red, blue, and black on a low pedestal whose colored planes nod to Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers. Sharp and stylish, the works open on the booth’s themes of branding and desire.
The display feels particularly timely given the strong institutional presence of two of the gallery’s leading artists across Paris. Kruger has created a monumental installation for the rotunda of the Bourse de Commerce, while Jenny Holzer is the subject of “J’ai vu,” a major exhibition opening this week at the Musée d’Orsay.
At the fair, Holzer’s work IF YOU ARE CONSIDERED USELESS… (1983) is on view, an early spray-painted canvas that emerged from her collaborations with New York graffiti artists, including Lady Pink. Gallery co-founder Philomene Magers explained that Holzer’s celebrated “Truisms” began as printed statements pasted onto city walls, bringing her into contact with the graffiti scene. The painting belongs to a “very, very, very small group of works,” Magers told Artsy, describing it as a “really important early work” by the artist.
Elsewhere, other works from the gallery’s hefty roster are present in their full glory, from George Condo’s paintings of psychologically charged figures to John Baldessari’s works that play with found imagery and visual juxtaposition. Prices for works in the booth range from €16,000 ($18,000) to €2.85 million ($3.2 million).
Booth 0.P10
With works by Uche Okeke, Obiora Udechukwu, and El Anatsui
Three generations of Nigerian modernism come together at kó’s thoughtfully curated presentation in the fair’s Premise sector dedicated to historical surveys. The Lagos-based gallery brings together works by Uche Okeke, Obiora Udechukwu, and El Anatsui, tracing the development of the influential Nsukka School, which emerged at the University of Nigeria in the decades following the country’s independence in 1960.
At the heart of the presentation is the concept of “Natural Synthesis,” developed by Okeke, who sought to combine European modernist techniques with indigenous Nigerian artistic traditions. Particularly influential was uli, an Igbo form of body and wall painting traditionally practiced by women, characterized by flowing, rhythmic lines and organic shapes.
“He wanted to incorporate the techniques and the styles they were learning, but to tell their own stories,” gallery director Joseph Gergel told Artsy, explaining how Okeke and his peers challenged the Western-focused art education of colonial-era Nigeria.
Among the highlights is Okeke’s Return of the Refugees (1967), which addresses the displacement caused by the Nigerian Civil War of the late 1960s. The conflict also shaped the work of his student Udechukwu, whose compositions employ the sinuous lines of uli to depict figures, landscapes, and scenes of collective hardship.
Elsewhere, a wood sculpture by Anatsui departs from the shimmering bottle-cap tapestries for which he is best known. Created using a chainsaw to carve deep incisions into the wood, the work reflects his interest in destruction, transformation, and material experimentation. Prices for works at the booth range from €60,000 ($67,400) to €205,000 ($230,000).
With works by Jacopo Benassi, Irma Blank, Maia Ruth Lee, Magali Reus, Peter Hujar, John Baldessari, Matt Mullican, Rémy Zaugg, Robert Mapplethorpe, Luigi Ghirri, HR Giger, Magnus Plessen, Stephan Balkenhol, Koenraad Dedobbeleer, Roe Ethridge, Flavio Garciandía, Raphael Hefti, Poppy Jones, Kentaro Kawabata, Gowoon Lee, Thomas Ruff, Hiroki Tsukuda, Daan Van Golden, Leon Xu, and Robert Ryman.
A row of five unusual photographic assemblages by Jacopo Benassi lines the exterior of Mai 36 Galerie’s booth. Each combines a black-and-white close-up photo of a thorny branch with painted botanical imagery, mounted within a shallow wooden box and held together by metal straps. The works look precariously assembled, a combination of photography, painting, and sculpture.
“He brings the medium to a completely new level, to a sculptural level,” gallery director Giorgio Dazzo told Artsy, describing Benassi as one of the Zürich-based gallery’s newest additions. “You always have this kind of fragility in his work,” he said, adding that the constructions appear as though moving one element might cause the whole thing to fall apart. The works are priced at €10,000 ($11,200) each.
Inside, the presentation balances longstanding artists in the gallery’s program with newer voices. A highlight is works from Irma Blank’s “Radical Writings” series, in which dense, repeated marks transform writing into abstraction. Nearby, Magali Reus’s Clementine (Full House) (2024) transforms the familiar form of a glass jar into a sculpture fashioned from plaster, aluminum, and steel. Elsewhere, Luigi Ghirri’s quiet photographs depict scenes such as a sunlit courtyard and a solitary table.
Tucked away is a quieter room dedicated to what the gallery calls “artists’ artists,” bringing together influential figures including Peter Hujar, John Baldessari, Matt Mullican, and Rémy Zaugg. Lurking in a nook is a painting by H.R. Giger, whose mid-century biomechanical imagery is still strikingly contemporary today.
Booth 1.H3
With works by Ayman Yusri Daydban, Abdulrahman Al Soliman, Mohammed Al Faraj, Rami Farook, and Sarah Abu Abdallah
Saudi Arabian gallery ATHR brings together several generations of artists from the Gulf, mixing established figures with newer additions to its program. Here, Ayman Yusri Daydban’s mixed-media assemblages incorporate found imagery, Arabic text, and references to popular culture. One, for example, arranges decorated tissue boxes on top of each other, with vintage portraits and printed lettering. “He’s one of the artists that we started with when we opened the gallery in 2008, and he still is [with us],” gallery founder Mohammed Hafiz told Artsy.
Elsewhere, Sarah Abu Abdallah’s intimate collages draw on everyday life in Saudi Arabia. One combines a photograph of sliced watermelon with a feather emerging from a heart-shaped object, while another layers torn photographic imagery with Arabic and English text reading “But animals don’t understand poetry!”
The presentation also includes works by Abdulrahman Al Soliman dating to 1991, made in response to the Gulf War, alongside pieces by a younger generation of artists including Mohammed Al Faraj. “For the first time, the gallery is working with estates and kind of modern artists,” Hafiz explained, reflecting ATHR’s expanding focus beyond contemporary art. Prices range from approximately $4,000 to $30,000.
Booth 0.P12
With works by Futura
Long before graffiti became a fixture of the contemporary art world, Futura was helping to redefine the form on the streets of New York. Danysz Gallery presents a rare selection of the American artist’s works spanning four decades, including several important paintings from the early 1980s that have rarely been exhibited.
Unlike the lettering and figurative imagery traditionally associated with graffiti, Futura developed a distinctive abstract language of sharp lines, floating forms, and atmospheric bursts of spray paint. Pony (1982), for example, is a vibrant composition of swirling reds, pinks, and oranges, punctuated by electric-blue marks and looping white lines.
“He was one of the first to go totally abstract,” gallery founder Magda Danysz told Artsy. “Some [of the works] are from the ’80s, and have not been seen for ages.” The rarity of these works has prompted excitement among longtime admirers, she added: “People who know his work are like, ‘Wow, these I’ve only seen in books.’”
The presentation feels particularly fitting in Paris, a city with which Futura has a longstanding connection (the Eiffel Tower makes an appearance in one work on view). In 1981, he struck up a relationship with British punk band The Clash, subsequently joining their European tour and painting live onstage during performances. “There is a love story between Futura, Europe, and even more so Paris,” Danysz said. Major paintings from the 1980s are priced around €200,000 ($224,700).
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