Art Galleries

Fellow art connoisseurs, these galleries offer you a piece of Paris on a canvas you can take home if you just open your checkbook (tbd if you can charge a masterpiece to your Mastercard). If you want paintings, sculptures, and everything in between (including, but not limited to art snobs and the hovering artist), here are the places to glide into with your art spectacles at the ready.

Unfortunately, not everything in life is purchasable even with that platinum Amex. A smattering of these art galleries are, indeed, just that: a collection of beautiful masterworks for the eyes’ pleasure only (unless you are of the daring type and *whisper* touch the artwork).

Marché de la Création

Back in the 1920s, artists had a swell gig going on in the Mont­par­nasse area: “le marché aux navets.” Make art to sell to the peo­ple, and who­ev­er sold the most bought him and his bud­dies a meal. In 1994, the Marché Libres de Paris group decid­ed to take this con­cept and turn it into an open mar­ket, and it remains up and run­ning. This mar­ket hosts more than 200 artists, which includes jew­el­ers, pho­tog­ra­phers, painters, and ceramists just to name a few. Each artist meets with the peo­ple they’re sell­ing their work to, build­ing a per­son­al connection.

ADDRESS: Boule­vard Edgar Quinet (14th arr.)

HOURS: Sun­days 10a-7p

MÉTRO: Edgar Quinet (line 6) or Vavin (line 4)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Mont­par­nasse

INSTAGRAM: @marche.creation.paris

Palais de Tokyo

Walk­ing in, you might ask your­self “what is this place any­way?” In sim­ple terms, take most of Europe’s mod­ern art, put it in one place, and you get the Palais de Tokyo. Since its incep­tion in 2002, this place has been a self-described “anti-muse­um in per­ma­nent trans­for­ma­tion.” Not only can you see art on dis­play, but you can also see art being cre­at­ed. You could say this place is like Shin Godzil­la, except the con­stant evo­lu­tion won’t kill you or destroy most of the city. With every vis­it, you nev­er know what you’ll find. Tru­ly out­ra­geous, tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar, and tru­ly one-of-a-kind, should you decide to vis­it, only expect the unexpected.

ADDRESS: 13, avenue du Prési­dent Wil­son (16th arr.)

HOURS: dai­ly 10am-8pm

MÉTRO: Iéna (line 9)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Chail­lot / Trocadéro

NUMBER: +33 01 47 23 54 01

INSTAGRAM: @palaisdetokyo

Carré d’Artistes

If you thought about start­ing an art col­lec­tion but nev­er thought you could afford it, this place has you cov­ered. Since 2001, this gallery’s intent is to make art-col­lect­ing more acces­si­ble and afford­able. Some art­works start as low as 95 euros, depend­ing on its size, and every work they have is worth every pen­ny. You can choose from a vari­ety of mediums/techniques and artists they have on dis­play. This gallery also has 30 more loca­tions scat­tered through­out the world, and you can also buy art­work on their web­site. Any way you choose, it’s guar­an­teed you’ll find a wel­com­ing space to enjoy art.

ADDRESS: 66 rue Saint André des Arts (6th arr.)

HOURS: Mon.-Sat. 10a-7p

MÉTRO: Odéon (lines 4, 10)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Jardin du Lux­em­bourg / Odéon

NUMBER: +33 01 43 25 61 72

INSTAGRAM: @carredartistes_official

YellowKorner

In 2006, pas­sion­ate pho­tog­ra­ph­er friends Alexan­dre de Metz and Paul-Antoine Bri­at had an idea. Why not make artis­tic pho­tog­ra­phy more acces­si­ble to the mass­es? Their mod­el is based on sell­ing 1,000 prints for 50 Euros as opposed to the oth­er way around. Their suc­cess con­tin­ued to grow with the pair reach­ing 90 world­wide loca­tions, includ­ing Paris. They sell prints from the most well-known pho­tog­ra­phers as well as new­er tal­ent. Each artist is judged through the Yel­lowKo­rner field of experts before being put up for dis­play in the gallery. And with every new hope­ful, there’s a new batch of acclaimed pho­tog­ra­phers. Plus, each print comes with their cer­tifi­cate of authen­tic­i­ty, in case such a thing is impor­tant for you. You can find the Paris gallery at La Hune.

ADDRESS: 52 Rue de Riv­o­li (4th arr.)

HOURS: Wed. — Sun. 1p‑6:30p

MÉTRO: Ram­buteau (line 11)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

NUMBER: +33 9 67 02 81 91

INSTAGRAM: @yellowkorner_official

Dalí Paris

It all start­ed with one man… well, two if you count Sal­vador Dalí him­self. That man was, and still is, Beni­amino Levi, the founder and cura­tor of the Dalí Uni­verse. His con­nec­tion goes all the way back to the 1960s when he met Dalí, and encouraged/commissioned him to build sculp­tures. In the exhi­bi­tions, you can expect to not only find these sculp­tures, but also rare art­work from pri­vate col­lec­tions. Yes, there is more to this man than his eccen­tric lifestyle and melt­ing clocks. As Levi is also an art deal­er, he works with the col­lec­tors to gain art at a fair price. The exhi­bi­tion hall itself has over 300 of Dalí’s works pre­sent­ed, each with its sig­na­ture sym­bol­ism and abstrac­tion he was best known for. If you want to learn more about Sal­vador Dalí or appre­ci­ate his life and work, check this place out in all its glory.

ADDRESS: 11 rue Poul­bot (18th arr.)

HOURS: Wed. — Sun. 11a‑5:30p

MÉTRO: Anvers (line 2) or Abbess­es (line 12)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Mont­martre

NUMBER: +33 01 42 64 40 10

INSTAGRAM: @dali_paris_officiel

Polka Galerie

The Pol­ka Galerie, despite its name, has lit­tle to noth­ing to do with pol­ka dots or the music genre. More so, it’s 300 square feet divid­ed into two spaces fea­tur­ing ten pho­tog­ra­phy exhi­bi­tions. It was estab­lished in 2007, and over the years, the gallery has rep­re­sent­ed over 30 pho­tog­ra­phers. The gallery also re-intro­duced great artists that were for­got­ten and financed art pro­duc­tions such as “Ali + Klein,” “Night­mare Repub­lic Part 1 & 2,” and “Labyrinth + Mono­chrome.” It has also been a mem­ber of the “Comité Pro­fes­sion­nel des Galeries d’Art” since 2012. It pub­lish­es a quar­ter­ly mag­a­zine fea­tur­ing the best the pho­tog­ra­phy scene has to offer.

ADDRESS: Cour de Venise, 12 Rue Saint-Gilles (3rd arr.)

HOURS: Tues. — Sat. 10a‑5:30p

MÉTRO: Chemin Vert (line 8) or Saint-Paul (line 1)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

NUMBER: +33 01 76 21 41 31

INSTAGRAM: @polkagalerie

Perrotin Paris

The Per­rotin Gallery was found­ed in 1990 by (sur­prise, sur­prise) art deal­er Emmanuel Per­rotin under the name Ma Galerie. In 2005, the gallery moved from its orig­i­nal loca­tion to a new one in le Marais Dis­trict where it remains. Its goals have been the same since day one: host vibrant and cre­ative envi­ron­ments to expe­ri­ence artists’ works and remain “con­sis­tent­ly eclec­tic”. Per­rotin has par­tic­i­pat­ed in 230 art fairs in 19 dif­fer­ent coun­tries. Plus, it rep­re­sents over 53 artists, emerg­ing and estab­lished alike. Pre­pare to be sur­prised, or at least expect the extraordinary.

ADDRESS: 76 Rue De Turenne (3rd arr.)

HOURS: Tues.-Sat. 10a-6p

MÉTRO: Saint-Sébastien — Frois­sart (line 8)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

NUMBER: +33 1 42 16 79 79

INSTAGRAM: @galerieperrotin

Institut Giacometti

Like most artist galleries/museums, the Insti­tut Gia­comet­ti was once the stu­dio of the artist and inte­ri­or design­er Paul Fol­lot. Go fig­ure, right? Any­way, each exhib­it shines a light on the artist Alber­to Giacometti’s life. In fact, there have been 5,000 draw­ings, lith­o­graphs, and most­ly unpub­lished note­books fea­tured in these halls. Plus, this place hosts work­shops like mod­el draw­ings and sculp­ture-mak­ing so that oth­er artists can fol­low in Giacometti’s foot­steps and per­haps one day have their own gal­leries host­ed in some ran­dom inte­ri­or designer’s for­mer stu­dio. Hey, you nev­er know.

ADDRESS: 5 Rue Vic­tor Schoelch­er (14th arr.)

HOURS: Tues.-Sun. 10a-6p

MÉTRO: Ras­pail (lines 4, 6)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Mont­par­nasse

NUMBER: +33 1 44 54 52 44

INSTAGRAM: @fondation_giacometti

L’Atelier des Lumières

In 1835, this gallery was the Chemin-Vert Foundry, a fac­to­ry geared to help meet navy and rail­road needs for iron works. It closed in 1929 with the prop­er­ty sit­ting in semi-lim­bo for a num­ber of decades. Then in 2013, some­one redis­cov­ered this build­ing and said, “Hey, why don’t we make this into a dig­i­tal art gallery?” The prop­er­ty own­ers agreed, and in 2018, this place ignit­ed to life. As you walk through the halls, you may notice the fea­tured art­work mov­ing around the room as if it’s a whale look­ing in on aquar­i­um vis­i­tors. Each vis­i­tor is immersed in art no mat­ter where they go. In case you’re won­der­ing: no, there isn’t a chance of find­ing the singing can­dle­stick from Beau­ty and the Beast here (in fact, you’ll have bet­ter luck in Euro Dis­ney­land). How­ev­er, you might see art as you nev­er have before.

ADDRESS: 38 Rue Saint-Maur (11th arr.)

HOURS: Sun.-Thu. 10a-6p; Fri.-Sat. 10a-10p

MÉTRO: Rue Saint Maur (line 3)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Oberkampf / Folie-Méricourt

NUMBER: +33 1 80 98 46 00

INSTAGRAM: @atelierdeslumieres

Paris La Défense Art Collection

Since 1958, the Paris La Défense Art Col­lec­tion has evolved with the rest of the busi­ness dis­trict while work­ing out a few kinks along the way. The place prid­ed itself on being the only ver­ti­cal dis­trict in Europe. Plus, with over 60 artists fea­tured, they don’t call this gallery attrac­tive for nothing. 

ADDRESS: From 15 place de La Défense to 92974 Paris La Défense Cedex

MÉTRO: La Défense (line 1 & Tram 2)

NEIGHBORHOOD: La Défense

NUMBER: +33 1 47 74 84 24

INSTAGRAM: @parisladefense

Villa La Roche

In his life­time, Le Cor­busier had a high­er call­ing from being plain-old Charles-Edward Jen­neret. He was an archi­tect and artist who spent his last fif­teen years work­ing on a place to put all his crap stuff after he kicked the buck­et as he had no next of kin and there’s no way to take your whole body of work into the after­life with you. Vil­la La Roche pre­serves every­thing, from his paint­ings to his per­son­al objects. When it comes to know­ing an artist to the small­est details, it doesn’t get any clos­er than this.

ADDRESS: 8–10 Square du Dr Blanche (16th arr.)

HOURS: Tues.-Sat. 10a-6p

MÉTRO: Jas­min (line 9)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Bois de Boulogne

NUMBER: +33 1 42 88 41 53

Le BAL

Whether you want to catch an art­sy film or check out some oth­er unique artis­tic expres­sions, there’s always a way to cap­ture thoughts of today’s world through art, at least there is when you vis­it here. Before Le BAL became Le BAL, it was Chez Isis, a hub of the roar­ing 20s. After WWII, it became the largest PMO in France and it stayed that way until 1992, after which it would sit aban­doned for over 20 years. But just as every­one was con­vinced that the glo­ry days were long behind her, in 2009, the gallery rose from the ash­es like the phoenix it was and con­tin­ues to be that artist hub ever since. 

ADDRESS: 6 Impasse de la Défense (18th arr.)

HOURS: 12pm-7pm, closed Mon­days & Tuesdays

MÉTRO: Place de Clichy (lines 2, 13)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Mont­martre

NUMBER: +33 1 44 70 75 50

INSTAGRAM: @le_bal

Pavillon de l’Arsenal

Look­ing for a con­tem­po­rary place to learn about archi­tec­ture? Look no fur­ther. Each exhib­it picks apart every spe­cial fea­ture of the city build­ings. You can go on tour of these exhi­bi­tions, attend a work­shop, or even peruse their library fea­tur­ing rare archi­tec­ture literature.

ADDRESS: 21 Boule­vard Mor­land (4th arr.)

HOURS: Tues.-Sun. 11a-7p

MÉTRO: Sul­ly Mor­land (line 7)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Le Marais

NUMBER: +33 1 42 76 33 97

INSTAGRAM: @pavillonarsenal

La Halle Saint-Pierre

Mul­ti­ple con­tem­po­rary artists breeze through the gallery here in la Halle Saint-Pierre. Its Bal­tard style archi­tec­ture allows for har­mon­ic seren­i­ty to be felt every­where. Cur­rent­ly, there’s a Hey! Le dessin exhib­it, which fea­tures draw­ings made by artists from all around the world, that are totes amazeballs.

ADDRESS: 2 Rue Ron­sard (18th arr.)

HOURS: dai­ly 11a-6p

MÉTRO: Anvers (line 2)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Mont­martre

NUMBER: +33 1 42 58 72 89

INSTAGRAM: @hallesaintpierre

Le Cube Garges

Talk about far out! Le Cube-Cen­tre de Créa­tion Numérique takes dig­i­tal art to a new lev­el. Each art­work pre­sent­ed aims to not only chal­lenge old cre­ative prac­tices, but also chal­lenge our pre­con­ceived rela­tion­ship with the art­work itself. You can touch some works or see your­self in dif­fer­ent shapes, while oth­ers immerse you in vir­tu­al real­i­ty. Yes, there’s so much to do and see, who knows? You might even see some singing plants.

ADDRESS: Avenue du Gen­er­al de Gaulle, 95140 Garges-les-Gonesse

HOURS: Tues.-Fri. 1p-7p; Sat. 10a-6p

MÉTRO: Les Moulin­eaux (tram 2) or Issy (RER C)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Issy-les-Moulin­eaux

NUMBER: +33 1 58 88 30 00

INSTAGRAM: @lecube_

Jeu de Paume Paris

Deep in the Tui­leries Gar­dens lies an artis­tic oasis known as the Jeu de Paume. What it’s most known for is show­cas­ing elec­tron­ic imagery (such as pho­tos, cin­e­ma, videos, etc., you get the gist, right?) from the 20th and 21st cen­turies. They also pub­lish the best of their col­lec­tions in a year­ly mag­a­zine so you can get a sense of what goes on the old fash­ioned way.

ADDRESS: 1 Place de la Con­corde (8th arr.)

HOURS: Tues. 11a-9p; Wed.-Sun. 11a-7p

MÉTRO: Tui­leries (line 1)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Arc de Tri­om­phe / Champs Elysées / Concorde

NUMBER: +33 1 47 03 12 50

INSTAGRAM: @jeudepaumeparis

Art-42-Urban Art Collection

Being that it’s locat­ed in the heart of France’s first free-learn­ing IT insti­tute, is it any won­der the col­lec­tion is also the first per­ma­nent street-art col­lec­tion in Europe? Every piece of graf­fi­ti can car­ry a mes­sage for the ages rang­ing from sim­ple to com­plex, and it rep­re­sents every per­son regard­less of their social stand­ing. Just to be clear, this isn’t a muse­um. Rather, it’s a col­lec­tion open to all audi­ences to enjoy and experience.

ADDRESS: 96 Boule­vard Bessières (17th arr.)

HOURS: Tues. 6p-9p

MÉTRO: Porte de Clichy (lines 13, 14)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Batig­nolles

NUMBER: +33 1 77 12 54 55

INSTAGRAM: @art42urbanart

Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé

Greet­ings movie buffs! We have a find for you! This gallery show­cas­es the career, times, and tribu­la­tions of famous silent film star, Jérôme Sey­doux-Pathé, through­out six dif­fer­ent lev­els. Movie posters, films, cam­era equip­ment, a researcher’s area: you name it, it’s all here.

ADDRESS: 73 Avenue des Gob­elins (13th arr.)

HOURS: Mon.-Fri. 8:30a-6p; Sat. 8:30a-12:30p

MÉTRO: Place d’I­tal­ie (lines 5, 6, 7)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Butte aux Cailles / Place d’Italie

NUMBER: +33 1 83 79 18 96

INSTAGRAM: @jeromeseydouxpathe

Gaité Lyrique

Want a place that views Paris through the Inter­net? Check out the Gaité Lyrique! Per­haps by explor­ing, you can gain a bet­ter under­stand­ing of our­selves and the city through a high­ly evolv­ing Inter­net cul­ture, or stick around for the memes. That works, too.

ADDRESS: 3bis Rue Papin (3rd arr.)

HOURS: Tues.-Fri. 2p-8p; Sat.-Sun. 12p-7p

MÉTRO: Réau­mur-Sébastopol (lines 3, 4)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Haut Marais

NUMBER: +33 1 53 01 51 51

INSTAGRAM: @gaitelyrique

FYI: closed Mondays

Appartement-Atelier Le Corbusier

As we men­tioned before, Le Cor­busier had quite a lega­cy to hold on to, so there was no one place that could cap­ture the essence of the man him­self. If you want to see every lit­tle detail on what this man’s life was like, look no fur­ther than this stu­dio apart­ment. Here, you can wan­der through the artist’s hum­ble abode where he lived and worked. Talk about a man who had his affairs in order.

ADDRESS: 24 Rue Nungess­er et Coli (16th arr.)

HOURS: Thurs.-Sat. 1:30p-6p

MÉTRO: Exel­mans (line 9)

NEIGHBORHOOD: Bois de Boulogne

NUMBER: +33 1 42 88 75 72

Musée du Luxembourg

When the Musée du Lux­em­bourg start­ed out in the 1750s, it was the first ancient art muse­um that opened to the pub­lic. It con­tin­ued this way until 1937, when it was closed and left in lim­bo. In 1979, the Sen­ate took con­trol of the muse­um and has been going strong ever since. While the orig­i­nal works fea­tured in the 1750s have been dis­trib­uted else­where to oth­er Parisian muse­ums and beyond, you can now enjoy col­lec­tions of pho­tographs and art­works made by women artists, which is fine by us any day!

ADDRESS: 19 Rue de Vau­gi­rard (6th arr.)

HOURS: dai­ly 10a-7p

MÉTRO: Saint Sulpice (line 4), Mabil­lon (line 10) or Rennes (line 12)

NEIGHBORHOOD: St. Ger­main des Près

NUMBER: +33 1 40 13 62 00

INSTAGRAM: @museeduluxembourg

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