This selection is drawn from more than 30 exhibitions visited across Paris this month.
List below.

End of April and I’m almost late with le best of. This month was particularly busy with institutional shows in Paris, or is it every month? I read somewhere that all in all about 200 exhibitions open in Paris every month. Competition is fierce! Though not all shows are worth a visit.

Lets go.

I know I was complaining about the Centre Pompidou — nowadays mostly (read that as only) doing their temporary exhibitions in a wing of the Grand Palais, despite promising to partner up with different organisations during the time of its closing for renovation — anyhow, I know I was complaining about them choosing to throw a major show of Matisse, the second in 6 years, as if there are no other artists worth the attention. Well, I was wrong. Not that there aren’t other artists, there are plenty! But the show is in fact very comprehensive, focusing on the last 15 years of the painter’s career, and therefore, life. The birth of paper cut-outs, the Jazz book with my favorite Icarus, the Blue Nudes — que du bonheur. I was lucky to be given a tour by the curator Claudine Grammont and her associate Alix Agret and get valuable insights about the presentation.

Henri Matisse, *Acanthes*, 1953. Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, collection Beyeler / Photo © Robert Bayer

Speaking of places that were closed for renovation and who did do a lot of projects all around France over the last 3 years, the Centre Culturel Suisse finally opened its doors. Shout out to the co-curators of the opening shows, Claire Hoffmann and Tadeo Kohan, for selecting three generations of women artists to welcome the visitors in the newly renovated space: Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, Mai-Thu Perret and Ingeborg Lüscher.

Ingeborg Lüscher, Feueraktion, 1971 © Hans Nolte

Henri Rousseau, *The Sleeping Gypsy,* 1897, 129.5 cm × 200.7 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

I had a particular affection for the exhibition Flammes signed by Lüscher, who has been active since 1969, but only minimally in France, which is a shame for her fire burns strong and bright. One of Ingeborg Lüscher’s leitmotifs is fire (pun intended), and the show at CCS turns around it. Too bad it couldn’t be deployed on a larger space to give her works more oxygen to consume.

On other fronts, the lovers of Douanier Rousseau (me) got a treat with his solo at the Musée de l’Orangerie, but do expect large crowds. Works from collections around the world made their way to Paris — run to see MOMA’s Sleeping Gypsy, but also his jungle tiger paintings.

I personally live on a different wave length with Nan Goldin and her nostalgic monotony of drugs-and-AIDS-drenched portrays of New Yorkers in the 80s so I did not appreciate any of the hype around her retrospective at the Grand Palais. I didn’t go to see the second part on display in the Chapelle Saint-Louis, can’t tell.

I am also not a fan of stuffed toys, so Annette Messager’s appropriation of the Musée de la Chasse was quite hard to bear. Pun intended again. That said, the setting is mesmerising as always, and I must admit despite my dislike, her work did fit well in the context.

© Nan Goldin, Nan Goldin, *Untitled*, 1982

Exhibition view, Annette Messager, *Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps,* Musée de la Chasse, 2026

Lastly, Lafayette Anticipation seems to thrive well in contrasts, going from one of the best events in town this fall (the outstanding Meriem Bennani, I still can’t get over how much I loved that installation), to the current Diego Marcon show/installation Prom, one of the most tedious events of spring. The whole mise en scène is a set up consisting in a movie screen and cinema chairs, and yet the actual films mostly lack action and completely lose the viewers. This is the typical case where the exhibition text (…The characters, often ambivalent, evolve in grotesque, sometimes violent situations that provoke both discomfort and empathy. However, the artist imposes neither morality nor conclusion, avoiding any form of resolution. … ) are more interesting than the work itself. While Marcon insists that it is through repetition that emotion or reaction can be achieved — imagine two moles counting in the same unvaried voice until 53 —, it seems he only achieves to tire his audience, especially judging by the lack of visitors on site.

Exhibition view, Diego Marcon, *Prom*, Lafayette Anticipations © Aurélien Mole

Arcangelo Sassolino - *Aux Abords du Séisme* - exhibition view, Galleria CONTINUA, Paris (C) Hafid Lhachmi - ADAGP Paris

In the galleries things were rather on the calm side, although some spots stood out. Arcangelo Assalino’s Au bord du Séisme at Galleria Continua, still on view until May 30, is messing with our perception of the physical limits of materials. Elastic glass, almost solid oil and a self-erasing marble sculpture play in a dangerous tandem, 0.1 gram or degree away from destruction. In a completely different direction, Jean-Luc Verna’s show at Ceysson & Bennetiere defines an outstanding example of a good artist. There is no better answer to the question “What kind of ____ (fill in as pleased: music, film, art etc) do you like best ?” Other than the good kind. There is nothing specific in Verna’s work that I like, but the totality of it. In his latest SOLOSHOW, Verna hangs his iconically drawn portraits of people known and unknown, clowns, stars and monsters, punctuated at times with leather jackets (white and black) adorned in poems and images. The space is a collage of paper, frames and objects creating an immersive experience within the mind and thoughts of this artist.

Elsewhere, in the upscale part of the Champs-Elysées, Paul McCarthy takes over Hauser and Wirth’s space pushing the boundaries as usual, this time a little further. He presents a series of drawings created in collaboration with Lilith Stangenberg and as a result of their unrehearsed yet filmed “liquid theatre” where McCarthy incarnates a horny Santa Claus and Stangenberg is a sexed up naked elf. Their ongoing risqué interaction is conflated with the act of drawing - on themselves or on paper. It’s refreshing to see these frankly unpretentious and messy drawings hanging unframed, scotch tape still on, on the spotless walls of the most luxurious gallery in Paris (on rue François 1er nonetheless), not to mention the projection of Santa fetish porn. Jean-Charles de Quillacq’s intervention on the last floor of the same gallery is not disappointing either, nor does it stir far from McCarthy’s provocation. You have until de 9th of May to see the resin cast of a naked male lower body adorned with what looks like an extract from a homoerotic magazine about sexy Texan cowboys. Amongst other things.

Lastly Shirley Jaffe at Natalie Obadia (this exhibition has ended on April 25th) revealed a comprehensive selection of a dozen paintings showing the evolution of her work. A safe and sober presentation of an artist who should be a household name.

And now, prepare for the art world Olympics : the Venice Biennale.

Seen this month:

Galeria Continua, Arcangelo Sassolino, Aux Abords Du Séisme
Galeria Continua, Manuela Sedmach, Guardatori
Centre Culturel Suisse, Akosua Viktoria Adu-Sanyah, No Flowers
Centre Culturel Suisse, Ingeborg Lüscher, Flammes 👌👌👌
Centre Culturel Suisse, Mai-Thu Perret, Othermothers
Galerie Chantal Crousel, Melik Ohanian, ALTERATION, For a long time in Time
Drawing Now, 19th Edition
Galerie Poggi, Anna-Eva Bergman, Oeuvres gravées
Galerie Poggi, Virginie Ittah, Oceanic Feeling
Galerie Joseph × POUSH, Duoshows
Lo Brutto Stahl, Group show, Where It Doesn’t Reach
Musée de l’Orangerie, Henri Rousseau, l’Ambition de la Peinture 👌👌👌
Templon, Jitish Kallat, Point of Incidence
Galerie Allen, Emmanuel Van Der Meulen, Praxis
Art concept, Miryam Haddad, Le Sel d’un Songe
Emanuella Campoli, Valerio Nicolai, Ex Sorella
Galerie Perrotin Danielle Orchard, Borrowed Chord
Galerie Perrotin, Paola Pivi, Live again
Balice Hertling, Daniel Blumberg, Silverpoint Drawings
Derouillon, Anastasia Bay, Night Mother
Petrine, Jessica Wilson, The Attic
Lafayette Anticipations, Diego Marcon, Prom
Lafayette Anticipations, Ladji Diaby, Who’s Gonna Save The World ?
Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Helen Anna Flanagan, Ugo Woatzi, Shervin/e Sheikh Rezaei, ArtContest
Ceysson & Bénètière, Jean-Luc Verna, Soloshow👌👌
Galerie Obadia, Shirley Jaffe 👌👌
Galerie Obadia, Romana Londi, VEIN! VAIN! VANE!
Templon, Abdelkader Benchamma, Signs and Wonders
Max Hetzler, Frederick Kunath, On A Clear Day I Can See You Forever
Galerie Olivier Waltman, Group show, Traits communs👌👌👌
David Zwirner, Rose Wylie, Henri, Egypt...Bette, Bear
Mendes Wood, Kishio Suga
Hauser & Wirth, Paul McCarthy, SS EE SAINT SANTA EVA ELF
Musée d’Art Moderne, Brion Gysin, Le Dernier Musée
Grand Palais, Matisse, 1941 – 1954 👌👌👌
Grand Palais, Nan Goldin, This Will Not End Well
Mennour, François Morellet, Géométrie Dans Les Spasmes
Musée de la Chasse, Annette Messager, Une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps
Musée des Impressionistes, Giverny, Avant les nymphéas. Monet découvre Giverny, 1883-1890

Le Best of/de Paris - April 2026 Digest

This selection is drawn from more than 30 exhibitions visited across Paris this month. List below.

Seen this month:

Le Best of/de Paris - May 2026

Le Best of/de Paris - March 2026 Edition

This selection is drawn from more than 30 exhibitions visited across Paris this month.
List below.