Art Basel Paris 2026 looks beyond the fair, extending into the French capital

From the glass roof of the Grand Palais to Paris’s museums, public squares and fashion houses, Art Basel Paris 2026 extends across the capital’s cultural landscape. The fifth edition runs from 23rd to 25th October, with Preview Days on 21st and 22nd October, gathering 211 international galleries while connecting contemporary art with cinema, fashion, music and digital culture.

Led by director Karim Crippa, the fair reflects Paris’s dual identity as a historic centre of artistic production and a city of continually evolving creative practices. Its programme reaches beyond the exhibition floor, with installations, commissions and collaborations across the capital.

Inside Art Basel Paris 2026: three sectors, 211 galleries and new perspectives

At the Grand Palais, galleries from 41 countries and territories occupy three sectors. Galeries, the main section, features 183 exhibitors spanning modern, post-war and contemporary art. Emergence focuses on 16 solo projects by artists represented by younger galleries, while Premise hosts 12 research-led projects revisiting art history and overlooked practices.

This year, 32 galleries participate in the fair for the first time, and six have graduated from Emergence into Galeries. A record 12 joint booths pair 24 galleries, encouraging exchanges between distinct artistic programmes. Premise moves to the larger Salon Seine, while the Conversations programme relocates to the Grand Palais Auditorium for talks between artists, curators, collectors and museum directors.

Beyond the fair, the expanded Public Program spans venues including the Petit Palais, Palais d’Iéna, Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine and Beaux-Arts de Paris, as well as Avenue Winston Churchill and public squares and gardens. The returning Oh La La! initiative adds a playful twist: on Friday and Saturday, participating galleries will rehang their booths around the theme Myths and Legends, under the art direction of French actress Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu.

Painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance and moving image reflect the range of contemporary practices on view, while the city-wide programme connects international galleries with Parisian cultural institutions.

From GENER8ION’s audiovisual world to Miu Miu’s literary encounters

One of the fair’s most accessible highlights takes place at the Grand Palais. In a first collaboration between Art Basel and Live Nation, GENER8ION’s GOD HATES SPACE occupies the Rotonde d’Antin from 22nd to 25th October, with free admission through Entrance 4. Created by French producer and composer Surkin, also known as Benoît Heitz, and filmmaker Romain Gavras, the project combines film, electronic music and architecture across a 12-metre double-sided screen.

Part of GENER8ION’s near-future narrative, GOD HATES SPACE extends the universe of LOVE & TEARS, the duo’s album released in June 2026. The installation offers a physical encounter with their audiovisual language, developed through projects including the music video STORM, featuring Swedish rapper Yung Lean.

Art Basel Paris also continues its partnership with Miu Miu, official partner of the Public Program. At the Palais d’Iéna, French filmmaker Alice Diop’s Geste de Consolation examines the historical representation of Black women and its continuing influence. Extending her collaboration with Miu Miu for Women’s Tales, the project combines images, voices, sound and scenography to consider consolation as an act of remembrance and repair. Free to visit, it places representation and collective experience at the centre of Paris Art Week.

Other public commissions extend across the capital. Along Avenue Winston Churchill, works by Keita Miyazaki, Carmen Herrera, Niki de Saint Phalle and Yinka Shonibare create an open-air encounter with sculpture and public space. At the Petit Palais, Cosima von Bonin’s Dollys & Beaux offers another perspective, while Tracey Emin’s bronze sculptures occupy the Parvis des Droits de l’Homme.

For audiences unable to visit every gallery, Samsung offers another way to encounter the fair. As Art Basel’s Official Art TV provider, the company has added 19 artworks from participating galleries to the Samsung Art Store, available on Samsung Art TVs in supported markets.

Two works highlight the selection’s range. Elene Shatberashvili’s Poppies #4 draws attention to expressive brushwork and colour, while Hans Op de Beeck’s The Lounge (black and white) evokes a carefully constructed sculptural interior suspended in time. The collection extends the fair’s range of artistic languages into domestic spaces.

Museum exhibitions to add to your Art Basel Paris itinerary

Art Basel Paris offers a starting point for a wider journey through the city’s museums. Three major exhibitions explore personal histories, collective memory and the changing language of contemporary art.

Remember Me 

Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection

Marking the bicentenary of photography, Remember Me gathers around 700 works by more than 70 artists at the Bourse de Commerce — Pinault Collection. Curated by Matthieu Humery and Lola Regard, the exhibition follows a deliberately non-linear path through the medium’s history, placing historical photographs and contemporary images in unexpected dialogue. Its expansive presentation includes The World According to Penn, a selection of almost 450 photographs by Irving Penn, while Barbara Kruger’s monumental installation The History of Tears occupies the building’s Rotunda and surrounding display cases, bringing questions of memory, spectatorship and power into the architecture itself.

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories 

Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

Running from September 18th, 2026 to January 24th, 2027, this major exhibition is the first in France devoted to the American artist. Around 70 works, including eight paintings created specifically for the show, examine Black presence in art history and American life. Marshall gives Black figures a central place in visual narratives that have often marginalised them, connecting everyday experience with the traditions of historical painting.

Ibrahim Mahama: The Harvest Season

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain

Opening on October 22nd, 2026 and running until February 28th, 2027, this exhibition features an expansive project by Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama alongside nine associated artists and collectives. It examines collective production, education and the social role of cultural institutions, echoing Mahama’s work establishing spaces for artistic creation and knowledge-sharing in Tamale, Ghana.

A city-wide cultural moment

Art Basel Paris 2026 reflects the growing importance of the relationship between the art fair and its host city. Its international gallery roster sits alongside museum exhibitions, fashion collaborations, public commissions and projects spanning music, cinema and visual art.