Art Paris is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an edition that will bring together some 134 galleries from 25 different countries at the Grand Palais Éphémère from 30 March to 2 April 2023. Art Paris – which was founded in 1999 – is organised by France Conventions, a French family-run business.
Thanks to the efforts of Julien Lecêtre and Valentine Lecêtre, Directors of France Conventions, and its general commissioner, Guillaume Piens; in the space of 25 years, Art Paris has become a leading spring arts event, an innovative art fair that fosters discovery, setting out to explore in depth the world of modern and contemporary art. A regional, national, and cosmopolitan fair, Art Paris has put the spotlight on many countries or continent’s art scene: Russia (2013), China (2014), Singapore and Southeast Asia (2015), Korea (2016), Africa (2017), Switzerland (2018), Latin America (2019) and the Iberian Peninsula (2020).
In parallel, Art Paris is committed to supporting the French scene. Since 2018, it has been asking an exhibition curator to turn a subjective, historical, and critical eye on a selection of specific projects by French artists from among the participating galleries.
A specific theme is chosen, and the focus is accompanied by a text presenting their work. In 2018, François Piron considered those artists whom history had passed by. This was followed in 2019 by A Gaze at Women Artists in France curated by Camille Morineau and her association AWARE, Common and Uncommon Stories by Gaël Charbau (2020), Portraiture and Figuration by Hervé Mikaeloff (2021) and Natural Histories by Alfred Pacquement in 2022. This year’s theme is Art & Commitment with independent exhibition Marc Donnadieu.
Boosted by the success of its previous editions, the 2023 selection pursues the fair’s development with a list of exhibitors renewed at 33% (i.e., 43 new galleries compared to 2022) and the continued presence of a number of international heavyweights. 60% of the exhibitors are domestic galleries and 40% internationally based. This deliberate choice enables the fair to showcase the wealth of the French gallery ecosystem that includes leading modern and contemporary art galleries and galleries based in towns all over France, while providing support to emerging structures with “Promises”, the sector for young galleries.
Art Paris is a regional art fair that gives pride of place to proximity, drawing local visitors and favouring local transport solutions. Since 2022, the fair has undertaken to develop a sustainable approach to organising an art fair based on a life cycle analysis (LCA), which us a first for an art fair. This pioneering approach entrusted to Karbone Prod in partnership with Solinnen has been renewed for 2023.
