Le Best of/de Paris - March 2026 Edition
This selection is drawn from more than 30 exhibitions visited across Paris this month.
List below.
The exhibition unfolds within an instability: a present longing for the future. Now is not a moment that exists as such, it is instead a process, a transformation, a liquid environment where we physically move through time-space and constantly become. The works seem to be driven by a form of urgency, almost a thirst. Liquid is everywhere, materially or metaphorically. Photographic silver prints emerge through chemical baths. Tin must be heated to become malleable in Daniel Cheruzel’s mouth jewel. In (LA)HORDE / Mouth Fist (2025), bodies merge through saliva and movement, fingers entering mouths in a choreography that is both intimate and disquieting.
And more.
Ariana Papademetropoulos’s Glass Slipper at Thaddaeus Ropac Paris Marais invites us into a contemporary surrealist experience. An aquarium placed in the center of the space, calling the viewer to see the world through the eyes of fish, but also, a clam like telephone booth upstairs letting you phone ring our to the see. The dreamy mermaid landscape bubble is bordered nonetheless but a series of burning microwaves, heating up the atmosphere.
Leonora Carrington
Musée du Luxembourg
18.01.2026 → 19.07.2026
The surrealist topic continues with the outstanding oeuvre of Leonora Carrington shown at the Musée du Luxembourg. If a surrealist artist deserves a pedestal, it is her, higher than Dali, Breton and Magritte. The exhibition claims to present Carrington as a “Vitruvian Woman”, and it is successful at that, to say the least. Carrington is the embodiement of a life of work, of continuous discovery and transformation.
Video is both an established and an underrated format in the art world. It is difficult to show to viewers who are unwilling to devote time and attention, and therefore difficult to sell. Few galleries dedicate their entire space to moving images. I do not know whether this context influenced my perception, or was it because of the strength of the works themselves, but I found this show full of magic. The programme is curated by François Bonenfant, and his selection is impeccable, the films connected by a shared fascination with childhood imagination and myth-making.
Group show
Clair-Obscur
Bourse du Commerce
→ 24.08.2026
As always, the Pinault Collection brings out a group of outstanding solo presentations within the overall theme of the season: Clair-obscur / the light and dark. Victor Man’s paintings fascinate in their greenish hue, as if painted in a post-apocalyptic space, and Laura Lamiel occupies the vitrines on the ground flour with installations touching our senses, albeit through the glass : the touch, the sight, the smell.
Jesse Zuo & Tess Mallavergne
Youth Will Always Win
Long Story Short
14.03.2026 → 11.04.2026
[…] Entering the Long Story Short gallery in Paris feels almost like stepping into a tunnel. Fairly small-format paintings hang on both sides at eye level. You’re absorbed inside, guided by the characters. The paintings are figurative, showing details of body parts: hands, backs, knees, faces. At some point, a subtle feeling of confusion creeps in. There is a lack of consistency in subject choice, palette, technique. Like a glitch in a digital rendering. Except this is still, thankfully, the real world. This is when it dawns on you that these might be different artists—and they are. Jesse Zuo’s works occupy one wall, Tess Mallavergne’s the opposite. The paintings mirror one another across the room. […]
Also seen this month:
All Parts Of Us, Drawing Lab
Pharmakon, Galerie Chantal Crousel
Nina Mae, Galerie Suzanne Tarasieve
µm, Backslash
Roxane Gouguenheim, By Lara Sedbon
Moffat Takadiwa, Sémiose
Paul Gondry, Sémiose
Stefan Rinck, Sémiose
Françoise Pétrovitch, Sémiose
Guillaume Pinard, Anne Barrault
Tornike Robakidze, Lo Brutto Stahl
Cédrix Crespel, Rabouan Moussion
Pablo Reinoso, Xippas
Dessins Sans Limites, Centre Pompidou au Grand Palais
Ersatz, Les Jardiniers
“1+1=3 : une exposition où l'art se fait dialogue”, Loevenbruck
Tout en Jambes, Vallois
Leandro Katz, Galerie du Crous
Elsa & Johanna, La Forest Divonne
Da capo sine fine, Wolff Abraham
Özlem Altin, The Pill
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Mor Charpentier
Yoon Hyup, Ruttkowski;68
Visages d’artistes, Petit Palais
