OUR CURATED EXHIBITION GUIDE FOR ART BASEL PARIS 2026
words by NIA TOPALOVA
It’s that time of the year! From October 23 until October 25, 2026, Art Basel Paris returns to the Grand Palais and beyond for its fifth edition, to connect artists, collectors, curators, and art lovers as one of the most significant fairs on the international art calendar. Under the direction of Karim Crippa, 211 exhibitors from 41 countries and territories across the fair's three sectors: Galeries, Emergence, and Premise, are brought together, with nearly 30 galleries joining the fair for the first time.
Surrounding the fair is a lively ecosystem of activity as encounters with the city's leading museums and institutions present some of their most significant programming of the year. To help you navigate the busy week, we offer you our curated list of must-see presentations:
YU NISHIMURA: TOWARDS A SEA
Yu Nishimura, boundary, 2023
image courtesy of Yu Nishimura
Japanese painter Yu Nishimura brings us on an underwater journey, in the company of human, animal, plant, and mineral creatures, at Lafayette Anticipations. Towards a Sea is the first French presentation of the Japanese painter, offering a rather personal look into his work, as well as insights of his upbringing in Kanagawa, informed by the bond of community and the body of water it lives on, becoming later on central to his work.
IRVING PENN, PENN & FASHION
Irving Penn, Young Woman in a Net (Miyake Design), 1993.
image courtesy of The Irving Penn Foundation
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) celebrates its 30th anniversary with Irving Penn, with most of the works drawn from the institution’s own collections. For Nanténé Traoré’s first solo museum exhibition Penn offers a look back to his childhood traumatic memories at the Breton coast, offering a more intimate, meditative narrative.
RAFAEL PAVAROTTI, PHOTOGRAPHER AT MUSÉE DES ARTS DÉCORATIFS
Rafael Pavarotti - Anok Yai in the Chloé "Shower" dress by Karl Lagerfeld (1983)
image courtesy of Rafael Pavarotti
Curated by Sébastien Quéquet, and created under the artistic direction of Igi Lola Ayedun, the exhibition Rafael Pavarotti: Photographer showcases Pavarotti’s editorial works offering flawless colour, assertive composition and glowing silhouettes. Born in brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, the photographer used to practise with his father’s camera before continuing his journey to London and Paris. The exhibition opens with a collection of personal objects dear to the artist, such as his father’s Kodak point-and-shoot, together with one of his very first photographs of Rio de Jeneiro. The Musée des Arts Décoratifs is hosting an exhibition of Pavarotti for the first time, gathering more than 200 prints including magazine covers, portraits, and campaigns.
TRACEY EMIN, I LAY HERE FOR YOU, I FOLLOWED YOU TO THE END, I WILL NOT BE ALONE, 2018, 2024, 2025
I Lay Here For You - Tracey Emin
image courtesy of Tracey Emin
London born artist Tracey Emin’s body of work communicates desire, loss, vulnerability, intimacy and strength through the female body. For Art Basel and the White Cube, she presents a group of bronze sculptures: I Lay Here For You, an elongated form stretching across the ground, in a pose suggesting exposure and withdraw; I Followed You to the End: a body rising into a kneeling position with its legs parted, suggesting perhaps both tenderness and submission; I Will Not Be Alone shows a figure sitting upright on a rock, with a veiled face offering an embodiment of endurance.
MIU MIU PRESENTS GESTE DE CONSOLATION BY ALICE DIOP
image courtesy to Alice Diop
Miu Miu is this year’s Art Basel Paris Public Official Partner, and has invited French filmmaker Alice Diop to present Geste de Consolation at the Palais d’léna headquarters of France’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council, as well as the site of the Miu Miu shows. Concieved at the invitation of Miuccia Prada, Geste de Consolation furthers the conversation with Fragments for Venus, Diop’s 2025 film for Miu Miu Women’s Tales, developing its exploration on the representation of Black women. The project continues Miuccia Prada’s engagement in cinema and art, as well as women’s experiences and histories.
The itinerary begins with a photograph by South African artist Zanele Muholi, beyond which Alice Diop’s two-screen video installation features a montage of archival images and film excerpts who have formed her gaze as a filmmaker. From there, visitors enter the Chambre à soi (a room of one’s own), a living room and library spread across a patchwork of carpets by artist Mary Lee Bendolph. The library features books that have shaped Dipop’s intellectual life.
The library gives way to a performance space with texts by Penda Diouf, Zora Neale Hurston, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Marie Ndiaye, Zadie Smith, being read by a rotating cast of performers, including Penda Diouf, Alice Da Luz Gomes, Latifa Laabissi, Séphora Pondi, Davide-Christelle Sanvee, and Betty Tchomanga. The stage also hosts an adapted version of Ivorian choreographer Nadia Beugré’s Prophétique, followed by performances from Chicago composer and musician Angel Bat Dawid.
LOUIS VUITTON’S ARTYCAPUCINES RETROSPECTIVE FOR THE 2026 EDITION
image courtesy of Louis Vuitton
As Associate Partner of Art Basel Paris, Louis Vuitton will present its Artycapucines retrospective on the Balcon d'Honneur of the Grand Palais. The book will introduce the new collection dedicated to the work of Keith Haring. Since Artycapucines’ debut in 2019, artists have been invited to reconsider this style through their own practices through experimentation, accommodating painterly gestures, assemblage, portraiture and sculptural interventions. The Artycapucines collection dedicated to Keith Haring will be on display alongside a Louis Vuitton suitcase from the 1930s to which he added his signature in the 1980s.
Alex Israel's Cut-Out-Fin (Golden Hour) (2019), an acrylic work on a laser-cut and collaged support, accompanies his bag with its own fin shapes from 2023. Urs Fischer's Fruits (2026) finds a correspondence in the banana suspended from his Artycapucines. The botanical impressions of Sam Falls's Western Wind (2025) echo the foliage of his design, while Tschabalala Self's Kitten (2026), combining painted and textile elements, offers a counterpart to her layered composition on leather.
The display highlights how artists translate their signature styles directly into their Louis Vuitton bag designs. Painters Josh Smith, Henry Taylor, and Gregor Hildebrandt will bring their portraiture and cassette-tape textures into the space. Sculptural works by Kennedy Yanko (using metal and paint skin), Liza Lou (with detailed hand-beading), and Billie Zangewa (through embroidered silk) show off a heavy focus on raw materials and touch. The exhibit also pays tribute to three major long-term collaborators: Takashi Murakami with his camouflage and skull motifs, the late Yayoi Kusama through her polka-dot pumpkin and painted works, and the late architect Frank Gehry, featuring his fish-shaped lamps alongside his leather designs.
FONDATION CARTIER AND IBRAHIM MAHAMA: THE HARVEST SEASON
Harvest Time by Ibrahim Mahama
image courtesy of Ibrahim Mahama
For its exhibition Harvest Time, the Fondation Cartier invites Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, winner of the 2025 Art Basel Award, to take over its spaces alongside nine collaborating artists and collectives. This major presentation builds directly on the work Mahama began in Tamale, Ghana, where he founded cultural spaces designed for artistic creation, community dialogue, and education. Deeply tied to their local roots, these institutions inherit the visionary social and political ideals born during Africa’s independence era in the 1950s and 1960s. Harvest Time brings that same transformative energy to Paris, offering a reflection on community, knowledge-sharing, and collective action in an era marked by deep political, social, and environmental shifts.
NIFEMI MARCUS-BELLO PRESENTS A MEASURE OF THE MOON AT ACNE PAPER PALAIS ROYAL
Nifemi Marcus-Bello meditates on his acclaimed sculptural series, Material Affirmations: Oríkì Acts I–III, examining cultural memory and material identity. He questions how overconsumption in the global North is dismantling material availability and economic viability in the global South. The exhibition explores the historical and cultural significance of bronze in West Africa through Marcus-Bello’s experimentation with materials and forms. Focusing on recycled aluminium from Lagos’ informal foundries, it examines transformation, resourcefulness and sustainability. Sand casting highlights Nigeria’s manufacturing potential and the extraction of natural resources. The Yoruba tradition of oríkì, performed by the artist’s mother, introduces ancestral knowledge and cultural continuity. The moon symbolises cyclical time, connecting natural rhythms with everyday life and traditions. Ultimately, the exhibition presents regeneration as a means of renewing Nigeria’s material, cultural and ancestral wealth.
SAINT LAURENT MONTAIGNE BRINGS A MARTIN PARR AUTOPORTRAIT EXHIBITION
image courtesy of Martin Parr
If you're taking in the art scene during Art Basel Paris, the Saint Laurent Montaigne boutique is hosting Autoportrait, a compelling exhibition featuring works by the late British documentary photographer Martin Parr (1952–2025). Curated by Creative Director Anthony Vaccarello, the presentation offers a tribute to Parr’s legacy following his death in December 2025. Celebrated for his sharp, satirical lens on consumerism and leisure culture, the former Magnum Photos president revolutionized documentary photography through hyper-saturated colors, harsh direct flash, and candid framing. Building on his prior collaboration with the house for the 2025 campaign An Ordinary Day, this exhibition showcases Parr’s Autoportrait series, created between 1996 and 2015. Over two decades of global travel, Parr hired local studio photographers, street vendors, and photo booths to capture his image against surreal backdrops.
