5 Paris Shows Collectors Should Have Seen This Summer

Major Summer Gallery Shows in Paris - a prelude to the art fairs season in October

By Hilary Tsui, Founder CityTransit Arts | Art Advisor & Curator

Paris does something  particular and alluring in the summer before its major art fair season - major galleries did not bring out the big names or blockbusters, but the artists who might have been overlooked, and ideas that have been building for years.

There are five shows that truly left an impression on me, and I wish every collector who cares about depth could have seen. They are all captivating in their own ways: whether it was a 86-year-old American female painter who has been creating ground-breaking abstraction; a street artist whose insanely ambitious public art installation transformed the oldest bridge in Paris into a cave; an incredibly talented posthumous Japanese painter finally given his first French solo show 20 years after his passing; or a conceptual pioneer from California who developed a brilliant conceptual system to create art that subtly, but intelligently deals with identity politics; or a Swedish mystic whose secret paintings that have been kept away from the public’s eyes 70 years after her death is rewriting art history.

Despite being on view only in the summer, the impact they have made to the audiences remain, as well as the artists’ market trajectories, their institutional standing, the conversations they continue to generate. Below is not merely an account of what was on view but acts as important post-it note for collectors, why these five names matter in the history of contemporary art.

1.  Joan Snyder · Earthsongs (Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris) - READ REVIEW HERE

2. JR · Les esquisses de la Caverne (Perrotin, 76 rue de Turenne, Paris)

3.  Tetsuya Ishida (Gagosian, Paris)

4. Charles Gaines · Ciphering African Acacias and Supreme Court Decisions - Hauser & Wirth, 10 June – 26 September 2026

5. Hilma af Klint · Paintings for the Temple (1906–1915) - Grand Palais, Paris, organized with Centre Pompidou