Prestigious galleries and renowned artists take center stage in the fully renovated nave of the Grand Palais in Paris - with a spotlight on “young promises”

When people think of art history, their minds often go straight to the iconic figures: painters, sculptors, and architects who gave shape to movements and styles. Yet, behind many of the boldest shifts in artistic direction, stand individuals whose influence is less public but no less decisive—gallery owners. These figures, often driven by intuition, stubbornness, and an unshakable belief in what others dismissed, played a powerful role in bringing new ideas into public view. Names like Paul Guillaume, Paul Durand-Ruel, Ambroise Vollard, Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Heinz Berggruen, and Peggy Guggenheim may not hang in museums, but their choices fill them. They didn’t just move paintings — they championed visions. They placed bets on what was often dismissed or mocked, standing by artists who were struggling to gain any recognition at all. Without their backing, it's not far-fetched to imagine that Amedeo Modigliani, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Vasilij Kandinsky, and Paul Klee might have remained obscure footnotes in the margins of art history books, their influence barely registered...

And in our time, which brilliant minds are quietly being showcased in galleries, still waiting to be truly seen and acknowledged? “Is his true fame? Posterity / The arduous verdict will declare” would say a 19th-century Italian novelist, Alessandro Manzoni, as a reminder of how hard it is to spot the names that will endure, especially when we ourselves are shaped by the limits of our own time and our collective habits. Still, earlier in April this year, Paris offered a rare moment to get closer to that challenge: from April 3 to 6, the Grand Palais—freshly restored and glowing under its glass and steel vaults—hosted the 27th edition of Art Paris. With 170 gallerists from 25 countries, all brought together under the theme of figurative painting, the fair carried the title Immortelle. Un regard sur la peinture figurative en France. The galleries featured on this occasion offer in this way a journey through figurative art that gives space to local voices—60 percent of the exhibitors are French—but also places them alongside a wide-ranging international selection, spanning continents and opening doors to a variety of cultures and artistic languages. In this way, this event opens a window into both established forces and rising names, with attention paid not just to long-standing galleries but also newer ones, pushing fresh artists into the spotlight. And these will be the focus in this article, with the hope not so much of identifying, but perhaps glimpsing some of the themes and talents that animate our epoch...

Figure 1 Photography by Marc Domage. Courtesy of Art Paris

Figure 2 Photography by Marc Domage. Courtesy of Art Paris

Figure 3 Photography by Marc Domage. Courtesy of Art Paris

Our itinerary can begin in Guatemala, represented here by La Galería Rebelde. Founded in 2019 by Jimena de Tezanos, the gallery’s mission is to promote South American art, both within the Latin American community and beyond. On display is the Umbral series by Costa Rican artist Luciano Goizueta, which centers on the idea of the threshold—a concept that captures the shifting nature of time and space. “With Umbral, I try to express a transitional zone,” Goizueta explains in an interview given for ADF “I wanted to give form to an umbral del tiempo, seen through sudden shifts in light that change moment to moment, speeding up or slowing down depending on how we perceive them; or an umbral de la distancia, marked by the kilometers that give the works their titles and reflect the physical distance between me and the place each painting refers to …”. In Goizueta’s works, the scenes, though deeply rooted in the artist’s personal experience, are unmistakably urban, and in that sense connected to a collective dimension, seen as an aggregation of many distinct individualities. The threshold, then, becomes a symbol of constant transition: between time and space, between the singular and the plural, between what sets us apart and what brings us together...

Figure 4 La Galería Rebelde - Luciano Goizueta - 1242km II B

Figure 5 La Galería Rebelde - Luciano Goizueta - 5643KM II

Figure 6 La Galería Rebelde - Luciano Goizueta - 5643km

Figure 7 La Galería Rebelde - Luciano Goizueta - NOCTURNO XXVIII

Wandering along the upper balcony, where the “young promises” galleries are gathered, we later come across Cutury Gallery—founded in 2019 in Singapore with the goal of showcasing the emerging artistic voices of the country. The artist presented by Cutury in Paris is Israfil Ridhwan, whose works are rich in autobiographical symbolism and marked by vivid, intimate colors. His pieces speak to themes of love, loss, and homosexual eros—all deeply and personally lived by the artist, resonating to figures such as Frida Kahlo, or David Bowie...

Figure 8 Cuturi Gallery - Israfil Ridhwan - Glaring Eyes

Figure 9 Cuturi Gallery - Israfil Ridhwan - Last Touch

Figure 10 Cuturi Gallery - Israfil Ridhwan - The Lullaby of Rain

Figure 11 Cuturi Gallery - Israfil Ridhwan - This Time I'll Leave First

Of particular interest to readers in Japan is then Kanda & Oliveira, a gallery located in Nishi-Funabashi, near Tokyo and founded in 2022 by Yusuke Kanda, a Japanese collector of both ancient and contemporary art, and Christele de Oliveira, a French national with a deep interest in multicultural exchange—particularly in Japan and its ceramic traditions. The gallery aims to serve as a bridge between two cultures, the French and the Japanese, “which may seem to be opposites, especially in terms of communication, but at the same time have much in common... we aim to build a bridge between these two worlds!” as Yusuke Kanda shared in an interview with ADF Magazine. The works chosen for Art Paris reflect this cross-cultural dialogue, notably those by Yozo Ukita, a master of the Gutai school, whose approach is to “not transform, not falsify, but to give life to matter,” creating art that “shakes hands with the human spirit, while remaining in rivalry with it [...] in a cycle of life that emits bombastic screams.” Alongside Ukita, Natsuko Sakamoto presents her vibrant polychrome works, which allude to the creation of “a world that does not yet exist” — perhaps, we might add, that of universal cultural harmony...

Figure 12 Natsuko Sakamoto [+] Sixth sense (Quantum Letters), 2025. Courtesy of Kanda & Oliveira

Figure 13 Natsuko Sakamoto [+] Smell (Fragrance between Analog and Digital), 2025. Courtesy of Kanda & Oliveira

Figure 14 Yozo Ukita Square, Square, Square (A Work of 15 Years), 1985. Courtesy of Kanda & Oliveira

Figure 15 Natsuko Sakamoto, Sight (Slope of Starry Sky), 2025

Also focused on Japan is Wamono Art Gallery, founded in 2021 by three Japanese collectors in Hong Kong with the goal of actively collaborating with Japanese artists and promoting their work beyond the archipelago, reaching wider audiences across Asia and beyond. “We are particularly interested in young Japanese artists who stand out for their originality, both in ideas and concepts as well as techniques. For example, we are drawn to artists who explore traditional materials like bamboo,” said founder Karen Yoneyama in an interview with ADF. “Our aim is to challenge and question our tastes—whether they are French or Japanese—and, at the same time, introduce our own vision.” In line with this project are works by artists like Kei Hasegawa, who seeks to shape his cognitive and emotional experiences through the manipulation and weaving of bamboo strips, and Shiori Kaneko, who, like Hasegawa, is captivated by the materiality of the artistic process.

Figure 16 wamono art - Kei Hasegawa - The Gaze II

Figure 17 wamono art - Kei Hasegawa - Untitled

Figura 1 wamono art - Shiori Kaneko - SIGNA - Ku

Figura 2 wamono art - Shiori Kaneko - SIGNA - Resonance

Finally, turning back to the European continent, the Umrian Gallery, founded by Tomas Umrian in Bratislava, presents a fascinating showcase: featured here is Lucia Tallová, a Slovakian artist who, by blending different artistic mediums—collage, painting, and physical objects—creates an intimate and sophisticated world. Her work explores themes such as memory or the role of women in contemporary society...

Figura 3 Tomas Umrian Contemporary - Lucia Tallova - UNSTABLE MOMUENTS

Figura 4 Tomas Umrian Contemporary - Lucia Tallova - UNSTABLE MOMUENTS

The exhibition, of course, includes many other galleries: Galeria Marc Domènech, Galerie Zlotowski, Templon, Mennour, Almine Rech, Loevenbruck, Galleria Continua, and even the porcelain manufactures of Sèvres are just a few names that punctuate this artistic journey. Leaving the Grand Palais, anyways, one might feel sated by the sheer abundance of forms, colors, and spaces, as though the artistic diversity of the world had been crystallized into a single, magnificent space.

Figure 18 Photography by Marc Domage. Courtesy of Art Paris

And who knows, perhaps among the works of these young artists, one may have already caught a glimpse of a talent destined to reshape history—just as Van Gogh once did. In this vast array of creations, perhaps the future of art is already hidden!