Perrotin Summer Exhibitions in France

JEAN-MARIE APPRIOU
LA CINQUIÈME ESSENCE

Until September 28
MO.CO. - Panacée, Montpellier, France

Jean-Marie Appriou’s exhibition at MO.CO. traces his artistic journey by juxtaposing his emblematic works with new creations. His sculptures immerse viewers in a universe where elements converge and change, exploring aquatic, terrestrial, and celestial realms through a dynamic play with light and texture. By blending mythological references with material experimentation, Appriou creates a dialogue between past and present, inviting reflection on our relationship with natural forces and the passage of time.


SOPHIE CALLE
ÊTES-VOUS TRISTE ?

Until September 21
MRAC Sérignan, France

The Regional Museum of Contemporary Art in Sérignan has invited Sophie Calle—who has family ties to the Occitanie region—to create an exhibition for the museum’s temporary space. The exhibition Êtes-vous triste? takes its title from a question raised by the artist at the end of her text The Medical Examination, part of the Autobiographies series. In her work, Sophie Calle recounts stories in precise, understated prose, always attentive to finding the right words. These true stories are often humorous and lighthearted, yet can also be serious, dramatic, or cruel. Paired with an image, each story offers a glimpse into a life.


SOPHIE CALLE
CHASSE GARDÉE

Until August 31
Château La Coste Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France

Château La Coste is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Sophie Calle’s series À l’affût, which explores the evolution of search criteria in classified dating ads from 1895 to the present. Each piece pairs two ads from the same decade—one written by a man, the other by a woman—with photographs of hunting posts and prey, thereby challenging gendered perceptions of romantic pursuit. The artist highlights the shift from concerns about social status to those of geographic proximity.


MAURIZIO CATTELAN
ENDLESS SUNDAY

Until February 2, 2027
Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France

Since it opened in 2010, the Centre Pompidou-Metz has been privileged to host numerous major works loaned by the Musée National d’Art Moderne, works that have marked the museum’s history and exhibitions. Endless Sunday is part of this dynamic, offering an immersion in the collection through a multitude of different media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, installation, video and film, in an unprecedented dialogue with the world of Maurizio Cattelan.


JULIAN CHARRIÈRE
LES GÉOLOGIES DU RÊVE

Until November 2
Fort Sainte-Agathe (Fondation Carmignac) Porquerolles, France

Julian Charrière, known for his commitment to environmental causes, has taken over the dome of Fort Sainte-Agathe for the second year running. Inspired by the story of Agatha of Sicily, after whom the fort is named and who is invoked for protection against earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and fires, among other things, Julian Charrière invites us on a meditative journey into the bowels of the Earth.


CHEN FEI
GRAND LOBBY

Until November 2
Consortium Museum Dijon, France

For his first institutional exhibition in Europe, the curators have asked the artist to present a group of still lifes and very large-format canvases with all-over compositions featuring arrangements of poultry or buddhas! The painting is descriptive and precise with occasional impasto accents or backgrounds of gold leaf or red lacquer. At once direct and explicit, at closer inspection the narrative nonetheless reveals a web of allusions in the form of characters and incongruous or comical situations.

JOHAN CRETEN 
PLAYING WITH FIRE

Until December 7
Orléans, France

The exhibition Johan Creten. Jouer avec le Feu, the largest exhibition ever devoted to the Belgian artist, brings together 120 works (including eleven in the public space) and is divided into two parts, highlighting Creten's artistic evolution by entering into his creative process for the first time, starting with the sculptures on display in the city, which visitors can discover at the museum through drawings, preparatory studies and variants. An artist working in multiple media, from ceramics to bronze, Johan Creten brings together forty years of production, writing the genesis of his work. This captivating immersion offers an in-depth exploration of his work, revealing decades of inspiration and creation through his iconic works and new pieces. It also allows the public to get to the heart of the artist's work by taking part in his reflections. After a first playful approach in the public space, they are invited to discover the long process of elaboration of the forms and the underlying themes: school violence, racism, intolerance, social emergencies.


JR
ADVENTICE

June 27 – December 7
Carré Sainte-Anne Montpellier, France

To mark the reopening of the Carré Sainte-Anne, artist JR has been invited to create a new immersive work. Adventice explores the memories of places and souls through a monumental tree—a witness to foreign vegetation—whose foliage consists of visitors’ hands, printed as living impressions. Montpellier, home to France’s first botanical garden, was nourished by plants that had traveled the world, arriving here, often unintentionally, through trade. Here, the tree becomes a reflection of these invisible movements, a palimpsest of leaves and paths where each hand traces and reinvents lifelines.


GEORGES MATHIEU
GESTE, VITESSE, MOUVEMENT

Until September 7
Monnaie de Paris Paris, France

This Georges Mathieu’s retrospective is presented more than 50 years after his work was last exhibited at the Hôtel de la Monnaie in 1971. The result of a collaboration between the Centre Pompidou and La Monnaie de Paris, this exhibition compares his pictorial work with his numerous creations for the minting institution, of which the famous 10-Franc coin remains the most iconic production.


JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL
STARDUST

Until January 4, 2026
La Malmaison Cannes, France

Following renovation works, La Malmaison in Cannes has invited Jean-Michel Othoniel to take over the art center with a new exhibition titled Stardust, which will open on the Croisette during the Cannes Film Festival. The artist drew inspiration from the stellar origin of gold, formed in the aftermath of a meteor shower triggered by the collision of two supernovas. Gold is a recurring element in his work, evident in the use of gold leaf on sculptures and in his paintings. In this exhibition, Jean-Michel Othoniel pays tribute to the celestial gold of fallen stars by presenting works either adorned with it or radiating light and reflections that evoke infinity and wonder.


JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL
OTHONIEL COSMOS OU LES FANTÔMES DE L’AMOUR

June 28 – January 4, 2026
Palais des papes & 9 iconic sites across the city Avignon, France

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its designation as a European Capital of Culture and the 30th anniversary of its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city of Avignon has commissioned a visionary artist to transform its iconic landmarks and museums, highlighting their richness and uniqueness. For the occasion, Jean-Michel Othoniel will unveil a vast artistic constellation across the City of Popes, with love as its celestial vault. This is a major event, a national first, and the most ambitious project by the sculptor to date.


PIERRE SOULAGES
LA RENCONTRE

June 28 – January 4, 2026
Musée Fabre Montpellier, France

To mark the bicentenary of the Musée Fabre and the 20th anniversary of Pierre and Colette Soulages’ exceptional donation to the city of Montpellier, this exhibition brings together around one hundred works—paintings, works on paper, copper, and glass—across more than 1,000 square meters. Structured around six thematic sections, it places Soulages’ work in dialogue with the masters who inspired him, from Rembrandt to Cézanne, and with contemporaries like Hans Hartung and Zao Wou-Ki. This immersive journey celebrates the legacy and influences of one of the major artists of the 20th century.


CLAIRE TABOURET
ENTRE LA MÉMOIRE ET L'OUBLI

Until September 21
Musée des Beaux-Arts Rennes, France

The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes presents a solo exhibition of Claire Tabouret's work. The show offers an overview of the artist’s practice over the past twelve years through the lens of portraiture, exploring key themes such as personal identity and social masks, conformism and subversion, group cohesion between constraint and emancipation, body language and emotional states, reflections on the role of the artist, and reinterpreted references to art history.


BERNAR VENET
PEINTURE – LE RATIONNEL / SCULPTURE – L’INCONTRÔLE

June 28 – September 28
Picasso Museum Antibes, France

The Picasso Museum in Antibes is dedicating an exhibition to Bernar Venet’s pictorial work, showcasing his investigations into saturation and mathematical formulas, as well as his new series Generative Angles Paintings. Outside, a group of large-scale sculptures enters into dialogue with the museum’s architecture and the surrounding Mediterranean landscape. Through this exhibition, Venet continues his exploration of the relationship between art and science, structure and chaos, utilizing an approach that is both rigorous and delicate.


VENET FOUNDATION

Le Muy, France

Le Plein, an exceptional exhibition in tribute to Arman. Twenty years after his passing, the Foundation is reviving the historic gesture made by the artist at the Galerie Iris Clert in Paris in 1960. Also on public view for the first time is “La benne rouge”, a work that Arman himself has never seen completed.

Vu, Imprévu, an exhibition by American photographer Ralph Gibson featuring a selection of his most iconic images accompanied by exclusive music composed by the artist.

Relief Effondrement, a new intervention by Bernar Venet consisting of 40 Arches, will be the subject of a spectacular performance by the artist over the summer.


FONDATION HARTUNG-BERGMAN
PAYSAGES INTÉRIEURS

Group exhibition
Until September 26
Antibes, France

In her memoirs, Anna-Eva Bergman states that painting is «an attempt to grasp as closely as possible the profound reason for the existence of this world.» As for Hartung, he explains: «The inner forces of a wave have always interested me more than the foam.» For both, the ambition is not so much to transcribe the external appearance of things, however beautiful it may be, as to seek their essence and their endogenous energy. This is what makes their relationship with the landscape so complex and interesting.