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From Paris to Provence, France’s most respected institutions are proving there’s far more to the country’s cultural canon than the Louvre. As 2025 unfolds, major museums and foundations across France are staging blockbuster exhibitions, immersive experiences and thoughtful retrospectives that span movements, centuries and continents. While the Louvre may be the most visited (largely due to the popularity of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it is by no means the only venue shaping global discourse in art, history and design).
From the surreal installations of Ernesto Neto to the vivid works of David Hockney and the fashion-forward brilliance of Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler, this year’s line-up highlights the diversity and ambition of France’s art scene.
Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris
Reopened in 2024 after an ambitious four-year restoration, the Grand Palais in Paris stands as a reimagined cultural landmark. Originally built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the monument is renowned for its soaring glass roof and Beaux-Arts architecture. Today, it re-emerges as a dynamic public space, hosting world-class exhibitions, performances, and interdisciplinary events at the intersection of art, science and culture.
Address:75008 Paris, France
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten
This landmark exhibition explores the dynamic creative relationship between artists Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely, as seen through the visionary lens of curator and museum pioneer Pontus Hulten. More than a retrospective, the showcase captures the revolutionary spirit of a legendary artistic partnership, one grounded in rebellion and collaboration.
As one of the most celebrated couples in contemporary art, Saint Phalle and Tinguely pushed the boundaries of artistic expression with kinetic sculptures, large-scale installations and participatory works that challenged traditional museum formats. The exhibition also pays tribute to Hulten — the first director of the Centre Pompidou’s Musée National d’Art Moderne — who championed their work throughout his career.
Featuring key pieces from the Centre Pompidou’s collection alongside major international loans, the show reconstructs seminal moments such as the iconic Nana cathedral (1966) and Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce (1977). Curated by Sophie Duplaix and co-produced by the Centre Pompidou and the GrandPalaisRmn, the exhibition offers a playfully profound journey through the intersections of art and activism.
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
Opened in 2014 in Paris’ Bois de Boulogne and designed by Frank Gehry, the Fondation Louis Vuitton is a cultural institution dedicated to contemporary and modern art. Backed by the LVMH Group, the Fondation curates major retrospective showcases, cutting-edge exhibitions and interdisciplinary commissions across its 11 galleries. With a mission to support artistic dialogue and cultural exchange, it has become one of Europe’s most influential private art foundations.
Location: 8, Avenue du Mahatma GandhiBois de Boulogne, 75116 Paris
Noteworthy Ongoing Exhibition:
David Hockney 25
Held from 9 April to 31 August 2025, the exhibition spans over 70 years of David Hockney’s prolific output. This landmark retrospective is the largest ever dedicated to the artist — with over 400 works curated across 11 rooms. Personally overseen by Hockney himself, the exhibition traces his evolution from early British portraits to iconic Californian pool scenes and the sweeping landscapes of Yorkshire and Normandy.
Highlights include immersive digital works created on iPads, large-scale installations, rare self-portraits and a vibrant new series painted in London in 2023–2024. A section on Hockney’s opera set designs and his art-historical influences — from Van Gogh to Fra Angelico — showcases the breadth of his interdisciplinary curiosity.
Head to the official website for more information.
Château La Coste – Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade (near Aix-en-Provence)
Just 20 minutes from Aix-en-Provence, Château La Coste is a remarkable 200-hectare estate that combines contemporary art, architecture and winemaking. Set amidst vineyards that date back to the Romans, the estate is dotted with cypresses, stone pines, olive trees and oaks — a quintessential Provençal landscape. Among its most striking features is the final architectural project by Oscar Niemeyer: a sleek pavilion nestled among Vermentino vines. The structure houses a 380m² exhibition space and a 140m² cylindrical auditorium, with Niemeyer’s signature curved lines and glazed façades that allow the surrounding vineyard to visually “spill” into the building. A shallow reflecting pool at the entrance plays with light and shadow, echoing the estate’s quiet dialogue between nature and design.
Location: 2750 Route De La Cride, 13610 Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Jean Pigozzi – Autoportrait, 11 July – 7 September 2025
This summer, Château La Coste unveils Autoportrait, a solo exhibition dedicated to Franco-Italian photographer Jean Pigozzi — a singular voice in contemporary visual culture. Spanning over sixty years of creative exploration, the exhibition presents a selection of Pigozzi’s self-portraits alongside — for the first time — original contact sheets from his archive.
Eschewing perfection in favour of introspection, Pigozzi’s work offers an unfiltered look at themes of identity, time and self-representation in a world increasingly shaped by digital imagery. Long before the advent of social media, his lens turned inward with wit, candour and a keen sense of cultural observation. Presented in the Old Wine Storehouse, Autoportrait offers a rare glimpse into the personal and artistic evolution of a photographer who has consistently captured — and questioned — the act of seeing oneself.
Azzedine Alaïa Foundation
Housed in the late designer’s historic Marais residence and studio, the Fondation Azzedine Alaïa preserves and presents the rich creative legacy of one of fashion’s most revered couturiers. Beyond Alaïa’s own creations, the foundation showcases rotating exhibitions drawing from his vast personal collection of art, design and photography. The space also includes a fashion-focused bookshop and a café, echoing the designer’s famed hospitality. With over 35,000 archived pieces and partnerships with cultural institutions and fashion schools, the foundation champions education and multidisciplinary dialogue at the heart of Paris.
Location: 18 rue de la Verrerie – 75004 Paris
Noteworthy Exhibition:
Azzedine Alaïa, Thierry Mugler Exhibition
An artistic dialogue between two visionary designers, Azzedine Alaïa and Thierry Mugler celebrates the sculptural and audacious fashion that defined their era. Curated by Olivier Saillard, the exhibition traces the creative affinities between Alaïa and Mugler throughout the 1980s and 1990s — decades that saw their work reshape silhouettes and redefine the boundaries of haute couture and ready-to-wear. Through a curated selection of renowned pieces, the exhibition explores their mutual obsession with the body, volume and materials — merging architectural precision with a radical sense of sensuality. The exhibition offers insight into how these two design legends left a lasting impact on the fashion industry and continue to inspire new generations of fashion creatives.
Click here for more information.
Fondation Maeght – Saint-Paul-de-Vence (French Riviera)
A pioneering cultural institution on the French Riviera, the Fondation Maeght was founded in 1964 by art dealers Aimé and Marguerite Maeght with the support of artists like Georges Braque, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. Designed by Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert, the site fuses modernist architecture with Mediterranean landscape in a blend of art, nature and light. Set amid sculpture gardens and mosaics by Chagall, Calder and Miró, the Fondation houses one of Europe’s most significant collections of 20th-century modern and contemporary art. It was France’s first private foundation for the arts and remains a vital hub for exhibitions, performances and artist residencies. Just 25 km from Nice, it continues to be a landmark for cultural innovation and creative exchange. The sculpture garden and permanent collection are a must-see for art lovers along the Riviera.
Location: 623, Chemin des Gardettes, 06570 Saint-Paul de Vence, France
Ongoing Exhibition:
André Ostier
Fondation Maeght presents a tribute to André Ostier (1906–1994), the discreet yet pivotal photographer who captured the inner world of 20th-century art. Featuring 32 silver gelatin prints, the exhibition highlights Ostier’s deep personal connections with major artists of his time — including Giacometti, Miró, Braque and Calder — many of whom were closely tied to the Maeght family and their gallery.
Ostier’s lens reveals a rare intimacy that includes artists at work, private studio moments and the vibrant creative life surrounding the Maeghts. Revered for his elegant, quiet style, Ostier was also a trusted friend to cultural figures like Christian Dior, Leonor Fini and Marc Chagall. As Pierre Bergé once described him, he was “distant, discreet and precise.” The exhibition — made possible through the Association des Amis d’André Ostier — is a poetic visual record of mid-century artistic circles.
Click here to find out more.
Bassins des Lumières, Bordeaux
Housed within a vast former WWII submarine base, Bassins des Lumières is the world’s largest digital art center. Its four immense 110 m-long, 12 m-deep concrete basins serve as reflective canvases for large-scale immersive exhibitions, featuring 90 projectors and 80 speakers across 12,000 m of surface. Culturespaces has reimagined this industrial monument into a cutting-edge cultural landmark, where projections envelop walls, ceilings and water in synchronised visuals and sound. Visitors explore via elevated walkways, fully immersed in a sensory environment where art history and high-tech innovation collide. Alongside its main digital showcases, the site includes “Le Cube” (220 m², 8 m high) for contemporary immersive art and “La Citerne” (155 m²) linking content to source museums. All year long, the center hosts rotating programs featuring both historic masters and digital creations.
Location:Imp. Brown de Colstoun, 33300 Bordeaux, France
Ongoing Exhibitions:
“The Little Prince“
Step into the dreamlike world of The Little Prince in this immersive audio-visual experience at Bordeaux’s Bassins des Lumières. Set within the vast chambers of a former submarine base, the exhibition brings Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved tale to life through animated watercolours, ambient music and poetic narration. Visitors journey through glowing deserts, asteroid B612 and encounters with the fox and the snake, all rendered in bursts of colour and stardust. The result is a deeply emotional and sensory exploration of this timeless fable — ideal for families, solo travellers or anyone seeking a moment of wonder.
Click here to explore the latest exhibitions.
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is Europe’s largest centre for contemporary creation — a bold, ever-evolving space dedicated to the art of today. Situated in Paris, it stands as a laboratory for emerging voices, avant-garde experiments and cross-disciplinary practices. Effervescent and audacious, the Palais is depicted as “a living, breathing platform” where artists are invited to create and respond to the world in real time and engage with a public “hungry for the unexpected”.
Since opening in 2002, it has embraced an ever-changing programme of bold, non-permanent exhibitions — from large-scale installations to cutting-edge video and performance art. With no permanent collection, the space constantly reinvents itself, making room for emerging and established voices alike. Its unique layout allows for site-specific works that play with scale, light and architecture. The venue also draws a stylish, eclectic crowd thanks to its buzzing restaurants, late-night events and panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower. Highlights include a standout concept store and cultural spaces like Yoyo nightclub and the fashion-forward restaurants Monsieur Bleu and Bambini.
Location:13 Av. du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris, France
Ongoing Exhibitions:
Chambre des échos: Elia David, Your Canine Portraitist
In playful response to Disco, Vivian Suter’s exhibition is named after her dog. The Palais de Tokyo invites painter and professional canine portraitist Elia David into the Chambre des échos. Echoing the commissioned portrait traditions of 19th-century artists, David turns his craft into both economic necessity and artistic statement — offering finely rendered pet portraits that explore the emotional bonds between animals and their owners. These works challenge the divide between so-called “high art” and sentimental commissions. His temporary studio doubles as a promotional showcase and participatory space, inviting visitors to collaborate on custom portraits of their dogs — and yes, cats, rabbits and even gerbils too.
Set in a free-access, community-driven space within the Palais, the exhibition playfully examines artistic labour, intimacy and the cultural legitimacy of everyday subjects.
Click here to explore more of the latest exhibitions.
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