9 Standout Solo Gallery Shows to See in Paris

A vibrant city rich in culture from both the present and the past, Paris has always been home to important art galleries. Over the past decade, however, global art dealers from distant cities have opened outposts there, increasing the variety of art now on display. With Art Basel and several other art and design fairs happening this week—attracting international collectors, curators, and critics—the Paris galleries are showcasing their top artists with their best works.

In the Marais, Elmgreen & Dragset offer a lifelike office worker sleeping at a desk in MASSIMODECARLO’s Piece Unique gallery store window; Jessie Makinson debuts new paintings of sharply dressed people in confrontational situations at Brigitte Mulholland; and a tribute to the late Robert Rauschenberg’s 100th birthday at Thaddaeus Ropac features his Glut series of sculptures made from metal street finds.

Meanwhile, in the Matignon neighborhood, Jeffrey Gibson’s first solo show in Paris features new paintings and sculptures that highlight Indigenous American techniques of patterning, textiles, and beadwork at Hauser & Wirth and Mickalene Thomas unveils a new series of portraits and nudes inspired by 1950s magazine depictions of Black women at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.Scroll through to explore these artists and their exhibitions, along with several other must-see gallery solo shows in Paris, many of which are on view through the end of the year or into 2026.

1. Elmgreen & Dragset | MASSIMODECARLO

Berlin-based Danish and Norwegian artists who have collaborated on multidisciplinary art projects since 1995, Elmgreen & Dragset are widely recognized for creating provocative works that explore social and cultural issues with humor and wit. For their second exhibition at MASSIMODECARLO’s Pièce Unique space, a gallery that displays a limited selection of art in a store window visible 24/7, the duo has brought the gallery assistant out from behind the back wall—or at least that’s what seems to be happening. Creating a realistic young person asleep at the desk, they’ve set up an open-ended scenario where the worker might be slacking off while the boss is away or rebelling against being overworked. Either way, their installation is a showstopper, prompting passersby to reflect on their early days behind a desk, trying to stay awake after burning the candle at both ends, or just being bored with the work.

Through October 31

2. Jessie Makinson | Brigitte Mulholland

A talented London-born and based British painter whose star has been steadily rising for several years, Jessie Makinson is best known for her surreal figurative paintings filled with historical and literary references. Combining mythology and science fiction, her intricately detailed canvases depict human-animal hybrids at play in erotically charged classical settings. The seven new paintings in her first exhibition at the gallery and her first solo show in Paris signify a shift away from her recent work, as the artist transitions from pure fantasy to classic-looking visual stories with quirky twists. Working on clear primed linen, which allows her to darken and unify her color palette, she creates richly patterned paintings of people in confrontational situations and smaller canvases of handsome young solitary sailors lost in thought. Loosely inspired by the works of the European painters Edward Burra, Paula Rego, Balthus, Stanley Spencer, and Graham Little, Makinson draws on lessons learned through study and observation and makes them her own.

Through November 8

3. Jeffrey Gibson | Hauser & Wirth

The first indigenous artist to represent the United States in a solo pavilion at the Venice Biennale and the sixth artist selected for the Genesis Facade Commission for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Jeffrey Gibson is celebrated for his paintings and sculptures that emphasize traditional methods of patterning, textiles, and beadwork. Mixing vibrant abstract motifs with popular literary and musical references, he creates a colorful combination of inspirational art and language while exploring issues of queer and indigenous identity. For his first solo exhibition with the gallery and in France, Gibson presents a series of paintings exploring astral projections and prismatic psychology that reference Indigenous and modern histories of abstraction, along with ceramic head sculptures and beaded works such as punching bags and a fringed wall cloak with texts like “This is dedicated to the one I love” and “Angel of my soul, don’t let me go,” signaling a call for empathy and strength in times of crisis.

Through December 20

4. Mickalene Thomas | Galerie Nathalie Obadia

Named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025, Mickalene Thomas has experienced a meteoric rise since earning an MFA in painting from Yale in 2002. Celebrated for her striking, decorative portraits of bold, Black women that reference art history and pop culture, the Brooklyn-based artist is captivated by artifice. Her work focuses on transformation, encompassing physical, social, and visual elements, with her transformative art serving as a symbolic challenge to current norms of gender and beauty. This exhibition, her fifth solo with the Paris and Brussels-based gallery, presents 11 new mixed-media works combining photography and dye-sublimation printing with rhinestone overlays. Inspired by exotic nudes featured in JET Magazine, a black-and-white periodical aimed at African Americans from the 1950s to 1999, and the 1950s French publication Nus Exotiques, the playfully altered images explore Black bodies, feminine beauty, and the power of imagery. Titled “Je t’adore deux,” which translates from French as “I love you both,” the series highlights past portrayals of Black women while offering a fresh perspective.

Through January 3

5. Robert Rauschenberg | Thaddaeus Ropac

One of the most influential American artists of the 20th century and a leading figure in the Pop Art movement, the late Robert Rauschenberg is being celebrated in a series of exhibitions around the world this year to honor the artist’s 100th birthday. The “Gluts” exhibition at the gallery runs alongside presentations of the artist’s works at Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Menil Collection in Houston, and the Guggenheim in New York, among other shows and events scheduled through 2026. The first exhibition in 15 years dedicated to the prolific artist’s sculptural Glut series, created between 1986 and 1994, features works from this collection of found-metal object constructions, riveted together to form striking wall reliefs and freestanding sculptures. Building on his earlier series of Combines, which challenged the conventional picture plane by incorporating everyday objects, the Gluts are no longer attached to canvas supports. Instead, they become completely autonomous, eagerly adopting the poetics of recycling and reclamation.

Through November 22

6. Albert Oehlen | Galerie Max Hetzler

A student of Sigmar Polke, Albert Oehlen is a painter’s painter. During the ’70s, he was part of a Cologne art scene that included Martin Kippenberger, and he proved to be a key innovator in the revival of painting, being among the first to connect the medium to digital technology. Through expressionist brushwork, surrealist techniques, and self-aware amateurism, he explores the history of abstract painting, pushing the fundamental elements of abstraction to new limits. His “Endless Summer” exhibition of recent paintings, shown at Galerie Max Hetzler and Gagosian’s rue de Ponthieu space, explores the theme of the bather, with the colorful canvases subtly shifting between apparent figuration and an elusive, intangible quality, characteristic of his style of abstraction. Presenting multiple versions of a dark-haired female nude, sometimes set against a vivid sky-blue background, Oehlen investigates the bather as a recurring muse throughout art history. At the same time, he references the 1940s painting Terrifying Sunset by John Graham, which has fascinated the artist for over 30 years.

Through December 20

7. Precious Okoyomon | Mendes Wood DM

A Nigerian-American poet and artist born in London and now based in Brooklyn, Precious Okoyomon explores the ongoing impact of the historical construction of race on the natural world. Celebrated for creating monumental sculptural topographies made of living, growing, decaying, and dying materials exhibited at venues like the Aspen Art Museum, Luma Westau in Zurich, the 2022 Venice Biennale, and the current São Paulo Biennial, as well as performances inspired by their poetry, Okoyomon integrates elements from their family background, personal experiences with queerness, and interactions with the internet into these works. Combining various aspects of their past works while exploring new realms, their exhibition “It’s important to have ur fangs out at the end of the world,” their first solo show at Mendes Wood DM and their first solo presentation in the city, features a selection of colorful dioramas and paintings depicting childlike nature scenes threatened by climate change, along with sexy anthropomorphic baby bears with their fangs and claws exposed, and fire in their eyes. Displayed in an eye-catching wallpapered room, viewed through a custom-made cyclone fence, or altered by trippy prism acetates on the windows, the show leads viewers into the artist’s poetic world, which is a pretty wild place to be.

Through January 17

8. Arman | Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois

Born Armand Fernandez in Nice in 1928, the late French-American artist Arman created accumulations and deconstructions of everyday objects, which he then presented as avant-garde art. As a key member of the Nouveau Réalisme group—a European Pop Art movement that extensively used collage, assemblage, and painting—Arman is famous for making assemblages with car parts, crucifixes, gas masks, telephones, cowboy hats, musical instruments, and other people’s trash. These types of absorbing artworks, along with cut-up paintings and shaved-down statues, are on view in the gallery’s entrancing “Tout ce qui reste” (All that remains) exhibition. An added highlight of the show is the recreation of a participatory assemblage, where visitors exchange an object for another, originally staged over a five-day period in 1965 at the Allan Stone Gallery in New York. During the exhibition, everyone is encouraged to participate—bringing an object they no longer want and swapping it for one in the pile—and help the work poetically evolve.

Through October 27

9. Karyn Lyons | Stems

A painter of stylishly dressed young women in upscale settings and romantic scenes, Karen Lyons studied journalism and worked in the fashion industry before turning to painting. Based in New York, she draws visual inspiration from her teens, 19th-century portraiture, gothic novels, and enchanting movies, which she skillfully translates into lively brushwork on canvas. Casting herself in the roles she recalls dreaming about during her formative years, the 17 new intimate paintings in her exhibition “Day for Night” depict Lyons’ diaristic daydreams of nighttime fantasies, where she imagines herself living a charming yet forlorn life of luxury. Standing alone, often gazing directly at the viewer or caught in a moment of secretly smoking a cigarette or reading someone else’s letter, Lyons conveys vulnerability and strength through assuredly painted pictures.

Through November 29