Le Best of/de Paris - Summer 2026
This selection is drawn from more than 30 exhibitions visited across Paris this month.
List below.
There are about two more weeks left to go and see some shows in Paris before the summer break, which, incidentally, is also perfect timing: post-heatwave #3 and pre-August desert.
I finally found some time to roam the galleries, mostly in the Marais (please forgive the convenience factor). And I was pleasantly surprised. There is some good painting to be seen.
Galerie Allen is showing Jacqueline de Jong’s very early paintings (1960–64), where her style is far from being formed, yet her proper gestures already transpire.
Jacqueline de Jong, Tonalica, 1963 Oil on canvas 105 x 70 cm. Photo: Aurélien Mole Courtesy the Jacqueline de Jong Foundation and Galerie Allen, Paris
What defines a good painting? To me, it is precisely about the confidence of the gesture. Its lack of ambiguity. Its intensity.
A good young painter might not have their form settled, but the gesture is usually there.
Mercedes Llanos at Balice Hertling has that gesture, no doubt. I am not a big fan of the reproductive subject matter (mothers and babies is probably the most overexploited motif in the history of art, and one that has, en passant, locked women into a unifunctional existence), but here the selection focuses on her rather abstract pieces, which work wonderfully.
Mercedes Llanos, Bed #4, red spiral signifies past life trauma, 2025 Oil and graphite on canvas 195.6 x 264.2 cm 77 x 104 in
Speaking of painting, another refreshing show to see is Philipp Timischl’s AUSSTELLUNG GEHT HINTER IHNEN WEITER at Sultana, especially if you appreciate conceptualism and linguistics like I do. The German title is therefore not a coincidence but rather part of a trilingual approach to the production of the pieces. I must admit I had—and still have—my reservations when it comes to Timischl’s work. On the one hand, I appreciate his combination of digital screens and canvas on the same surface, but the queer subject matter and simplistic drawing technique are not really my cup of tea. Here at Sultana, he fully immerses himself in abstract painting, embracing a form of self-scrutinising expressionism. It looks like a turning point, where the artist asks himself why he is doing what he is doing, and this exhibition seems to be the answer.
But don’t get me wrong, I am not leading a war against figurative art. On the contrary, some of it can be exquisite, like Michaël Borremans’ show French Painting at David Zwirner. An homage to eighteenth-century painters like Chardin and Watteau, Borremans brings a beautiful melancholy to his work, one that is indissoluble from the contemporary world. His characters and subjects live under the scorching inevitability of the imminent end of humanity’s flourishing phase, about to enter a period of decay.
Philipp Timischl, AUSSTELLUNG GEHT HINTER IHNEN WEITER, 2026. Exhibition view. Courtesy of Sultana and the artist.
Michaël Borremans, Magnolia Flowers, 2026 Oil on linen, 53.5 x 42 cm.
Célia Muller, Entre-tenir, 2026. Courtesy of Maïa Muller and the artist.
Somewhere striking the same nerve, in drawing this time, is Célia Muller’s show at Maïa Muller. Small formats of cropped, faceless portraits, fires, and hands holding flowers transpose the viewer to a place without a name, to distant memories, to someone she could have been in another life.
Stepping outside the Marais, two more shows caught my eye: Nefeli Papadimouli at The Pill, showing her usual wearable pieces. Over the years, her work has become more precise, and the garments more pictorial. And how could they not? It is hand-painted canvas. I missed the performance at the opening, when the costumes were actually worn, but I must admit I really enjoy them hanging on the wall. And finally, Elisabetta Benassi at Peter Freeman presenting The Wind From Nowhere, inspired by J. G. Ballard’s first novel of the same title. The main space features a suspended upside-down rowboat that moves at times in an indefinite direction, invoking an echoing sentiment that also arises in Michaël Borremans’ paintings above.
In the institutional shows, things were rather quiet, since most of the big exhibitions opened in the spring. I have, however, done my pilgrimage to the Grand Palais, which is nowadays the all-in-one space in Paris for museum-level art exhibitions. Convenient. A little sad.
(Pardon my dull exaggeration above. It is my frustration with the fact that the Centre Pompidou has been closed since October 2025, yet the actual construction work has not even started, while yet another dinner party for the Friends of the Museum was held there just a few weeks ago.)
Nefeli Papadimouli, In the Folds of the World, Endlessly, 2026. Exhibition view, courtesy of The Pill and the artist.
Elisabetta Benassi: The Wind from Nowhere, installation view.
Anyhow, I was unexpectedly delighted by Leandro Erlich’s retrospective, which was not advertised as a retrospective at all. I thought I would see a couple of works, but the exhibition gathers a large number of his installations. Highly recommended.
For those who have not seen Wael Shawky’s Drama 1882 at the Egyptian Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale, you now have the chance. I enjoyed it then, and did so again this time. Outstanding costumes, singing, and choreography—and it is actually free of charge.
On the contrary, Laure Prouvost’s We Felt a Star Dying in its Parisian version is decidedly inferior to the exhibition that took place in Berlin at LAS Art Foundation last year. Whereas the Kraftwerk location divided the exhibition into a variety of spaces and fully immersed it in pitch darkness, the Grand Palais allocated only half of its nave, separating it by an all-too-visible wall from the other productions and dousing it in light. The mystery was fully lost.
And with that—I’ll end my rambling. Thank you for reading all the way.
Back in September.
Pro tip: Within Paris’ love-hate relationship with air conditioning, if you want to join the dark side, go to the Louvre. Not to the over-seen must-sees of Denon, but specifically to the second floor of the Richelieu wing. The above-mentioned Chardin and Watteau are there, but also Flandrin, Ingres, Chassériau, and, of course, the Dutch masters Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Leandro Erlich Studio, Bâtiment, 2004. Digital print on linoleum, lights, iron, wood, and mirror Le Centquatre, Paris, 2011
Seen this month:
Galerie Catherine Putman — Group exhibition — Sous l’œil et la plume de Jacques Putman
Balice Hertling — Mercedes Llanos — Entresueños
Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou — Léonore Chastagner — Ce qu’il faut aimer est absent
Andréhn-Schiptjenko — Martin Jacobson — See the Sights
Galerie Claire Gastaud — Group exhibition — Summer Show
PALM Gallery — Group exhibition — Inaugural Exhibition
Galerie Maïa Muller — Célia Muller — Entre-Tenir
Galerie Maïa Muller — Hassan Musa — The American Way of Life and Death
Galerie Sultana — Philipp Timischl — AUSSTELLUNG GEHT HINTER IHNEN WEITER
Galerie Alberta Pane — Esther Stocker — Secrets géométriques
Templon — Alioune Diagne — Saytu
Templon — Jan Van Imschoot — Le chant du pommier
Sans titre — Zuzanna Czebatul and Mel Odom — Nothing Vast Without a Curse
Galleria Continua — Jonathas de Andrade — Ivresse d’une vie de bains de mer
Galleria Continua — Group exhibition — Plein Soleil
Marian Goodman Gallery — Annette Messager — Histoires des oreillers
Galerie Allen — Jacqueline de Jong — Before Language
Art : Concept — Caroline Achaintre, Julien Audebert, Pierre Bellot, Michel Blazy, Nina Childress, Jeremy Deller, Michel François, Corentin Grossmann, Miryam Haddad, Kate Newby, Tania Pérez Córdova and Roman Signer — Summer Show
Galerie Anne Barrault — Neïla Czermak Ichti — Shoot From the Heart
Mor Charpentier — Sylvie Selig — Cinema Paradiso
Ruttkowski;68 — Mark Whalen and Salomon Huerta — Lumbre
Galerie Olivier Waltman — Group exhibition — Summer Show
Galerie Pinel — Group exhibition — Summer Show
David Zwirner — Michaël Borremans — French Painting
Xippas — Rita Fischer — Intempéries
Thaddaeus Ropac — Joan Snyder — Love and Other Disasters
Galerie Karsten Greve — Lucio Fontana — Lucio Fontana
The Pill — Nefeli Papadimouli — In the Folds of the World, Endlessly
Galerie Peter Kilchmann — Group exhibition — Epicentre
Grand Palais — Hilma af Klint — Paintings for the Temple
Grand Palais — Leandro Erlich — Leandro Erlich
Grand Palais — Laure Prouvost — Nous, frissons d’étoiles
Grand Palais — Wael Shawky — I Am Hymns of the New Temples
Musée de Cluny — Group exhibition — Licornes !
Mendes Wood DM — Paulo Nazareth — A gente não nasce sabendo
Perrotin — JR — La Caverne du Pont-Neuf
Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection — Fujiko Nakaya — Fog Sculpture #08025 “Dialogue”
Fondation Louis Vuitton — Alexander Calder — Rêver en équilibre
Peter Freeman, Inc. — Elisabetta Benassi — The Drowned World
Galerie Derouillon — Vojtěch Kovařík, in dialogue with Aristide Maillol and Henri Rousseau — Enchanted Mirror
Palais de Tokyo — Cathy de Monchaux — Never Forget
