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Shows to See in Paris, October 2024
By The Editors
With major back-to-back art fairs in London and Paris this October, many galleries and collectors have been making the cross-Channel trek while weighing up two rival art markets, anchored by the duopoly of Frieze and Art Basel, respectively. Along with the newly rebranded Art Basel Paris (October 18–20), the French capital is also home to the ten-year-young Asia NOW fair (October 17–20), which takes a more curated approach—this year’s event, “Ceremony,” is overseen by Nicolas Bourriaud’s collective RADICANTS—and the emerging-artist-focused Paris Internationale, also marking its first decade. Beyond the fairs, Paris’s cultural institutions and galleries, new and old, are turning out their best programs for the international influx. Here’s a look at some of the editors’ highlights.
Still from LU YANG’s DOKU The Self, 2022, single-channel 4K digital video: 36 mins. Courtesy the artist.
Oct 9–Feb 3, 2025
目 Chine: A New Generation of Artists
Centre Pompidou
Before it closes for the next five years, the Centre Pompidou presents the works of 21 Chinese artists born between the late 1970s to the early 1990s, including new media artist Aaajiao, painter Qiu Xiaofei, installation artist Chu Yun, and multidisciplinary artist Hu Xiaoyun, among others. Curated under the theme “目” (eye), the diverse selection of work spans video, painting, sculpture, installation, and photography to explore contemporary issues in China, particularly concerning globalization and environmentalism.
Scene from APICHATPONG WEERASETHAKUL’s On Blue, 2022, single-channel video: 16 min 16 sec. Courtesy the artist and Kick the Machine Films.
Oct 2–Jan 6
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Particules De Nuit / Night Particles
Centre Pompidou
Thai artist and filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul showcases 20 of his works made between 2002 to the present within the Atelier Brancusi, an enclosed structure next to the Centre Pompidou. Highlights include his two-channel video installation inspired by childhood ghost stories and the horror genre, which debuted at last year’s Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai, and Haiku (2009), a two-minute silent film shot in the style of a video diary that documents a set in his film project Primitive (2009).
Installation view of DANIEL BOYD’s Untitled (MMM), 2024, oil, acrylic, oil pastel, and archival glue on canvas, 122 × 122 × 3.5 cm. Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris.
Oct 12–Dec 21
Daniel Boyd
Dream Time
Marian Goodman Gallery
Marian Goodman Gallery hosts Aboriginal (Kudjla/Gangalu) artist Daniel Boyd’s first solo exhibition in France. Titled “Dream Time,” referencing early European anthropologists’ reductive term for First Nations mythology, Boyd displays his new pointillist-style paintings of photographic portraits, landscapes, and abstract patterns that seek to uproot hierarchical systems of representation.
Installation view of TAKASHI MURAKAMI’s Murakami Panda Parent and Cub (left) and ZuZaZaZaZaZa Rainbow (right), both 2023-24, acrylic on canvas mounted on wood panel, 105.6 × 93.4 cm and 120 × 120 cm, respectively. Courtesy Perrotin, Paris.
Oct 15–Nov 23
Takashi Murakami
Perrotin
In his latest solo exhibition with Perrotin, Japanese Superflat artist Takashi Murakami revives his “greatest hits” by updating and recontextualizing a variety of his iconic motifs. Among the many anime-style animals on display are Murakami’s signature octopus, panda, and yume lion characters, which are reimagined in wall-mounted acrylic works. These are paired with his circular-shaped canvases of flowers, which pay homage to the 17th-century painter Ogata Kōrin.
From *SKYSEEF*’s photograph series Culture is the Waves of the Future, 2022. Courtesy the artist.
Apr 23–Oct 27
ARABOFUTURS Science-fiction and new imaginaries
Institut du Monde Arabe
In “ARABOFUTURS,” 18 artists from the Arab world come together to present surreal visions of science fiction through works that span video, painting, photography, and performance art. Featuring artists such as filmmaker Sophia Al Maria and musician-sound artist Fatima Al Qadiri, the exhibition explores themes of globalization, modernity, ecology, migration, and gender by creating a space where marginalized individuals can imagine and witness a future in which they are legitimate
Installation view of JIANG QIONG ER’s Origin, 2024, multimedia specific-specific installation, dimensions variable, at the Musee Guimet, Paris, 2024. Courtesy the artist and Musee Guimet.
Apr 27–Feb 16, 2025
Jiang Qiong Er
Guardians of Time
Musée Guimet
Shanghai-born artist Jiang Qiong Er transforms five spaces in the Musée Guimet with large-scale installations, each evoking an aspect of Chinese culture. On top of the Guimet’s rotunda and on the windows of its facade is the work Origin (2024), comprising 12 mythical creatures framed in red tulle. The site-specific installation recalls the stone fu dogs often seen in Chinese architecture, demonstrating Jiang’s contemporary interpretations of mythological symbols.
MOHAMAD ABDOUNI, My Father in Zebra, 1977, c-print. Courtesy the artist.
Oct 16–Nov 17
Mohamad Abdouni
Soft Skills
Lafayette Anticipations
For his solo exhibition “Soft Skills,” Lebanese artist and filmmaker Mohamad Abdouni exhibits an amalgamation of archival photographs and fictional, AI-developed elements to reflect on his and his family’s history. In doing so, Abdouni re-examines his childhood in the eastern Bekaa region of Lebanon, where the queer artist internalized what he calls a “narrow” vision of masculinity.
Installation view of NISKY YU‘s "Yesterday’s Letter," 2024. Photo by Diane Arques Adagp. Courtesy Dumonteil Contemporary, Paris.
Sep 12–Nov 16
Nisky Yu
Yesterday’s Letter
Dumonteil Contemporary
Shanghai-based artist Nisky Yu’s sixth solo exhibition with Dumonteil Contemporary presents his two-year exploration of “Metacollage” painting, in which Yu deconstructs his raw material (oil paint) before “reintegrating [it] into a cohesive whole.” The method also represents his conceptual approach to figurative painting, as each highly detailed work blends a wide variety of narratives, such as themes from Renaissance formations and elements of ancient Chinese landscape painting.
Installation view of LENA BUI’s "Blue Filaments," 2024. Courtesy Galerie BAQ, Paris.
Sep 12–Nov 2
Lêna Bùi
Blue Filaments
Galerie BAQ
In “Blue Filaments,” Lêna Bùi’s first solo exhibition with Galerie BAQ, the Ho Chi Minh City-based artist interrogates and reframes memory as an essential, yet fickle concept. The exhibition displays new ink and watercolor canvases depicting abstracted landscapes alongside an earlier video work, forging a multisensory exposition of existence’s contradictory and surreal nature.
YASUHIRO ISHIMOTO, Chicago, Town, circa 1960, gelatin silver print, 27.9 × 35.6 cm. Courtesy Ishimoto Yasuhiro Photo Center, Kochi Prefecture.
June 19–Nov 17
Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Lines And Bodies
Le Bal
For this major exhibition on the late Japanese photographer Yasuhiro Ishimoto (1921–2012), “Lines And Bodies,” Le Bal collaborated with the Ishimoto Yasuhiro Photo Center at the Museum of Art, Kochi, to bring nearly 170 rare black-and-white prints to Europe for the first time. The exhibition focuses on Ishimoto’s early work from the 1950s and ’60s, tracing the photographer’s travels across Japan and Chicago.
KENJIRO OKAZAKI, Heads poking out, a shape with lion body and man’s head. A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun. (…), 2024, acrylic on canvas, 260.6 × 268.2 cm. Courtesy Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris.
Oct 12–Nov 15
Kenjiro Okazaki
Mettere a nudo / Aeon Muttered
Galerie Frank Elbaz
Japanese artist Kenjiro Okazaki’s second solo exhibition with Galerie Frank Elbaz features six new large-scale paintings alongside multiple works from his Zero Thumbnail series (2005– ), of small-scale abstractions. Primarily exploring the principles of form and creation, Okazaki’s colorful paintings suggest that boundaries are fundamentally transmutable.
