New York–based gallery Salon 94 will expand its footprint to Paris, where it will open a permanent space facing the Jardin du Palais Royal on October 18. Located at 30 Galerie de Montpensier, the 323-square-foot space will be inaugurated by a solo exhibition for Deborah Roberts, running through November 28.
“Artists really led us to think about a space here,” Fabienne Stephan, Salon 94’s European director who will be leading the space, told ARTnews. “Artists love presenting their work in the architecture and the history of the city.”
For the past three years, Salon 94 has been testing out the Paris market, hosting exhibitions at different spaces near the Palais Royal. The first two, staged in collaboration with Devals gallery, were solos for Kennedy Yanko in 2023 and Marina Adams in 2024, while last year’s group show was also staged at 30 Galerie de Montpensier, when it was the Paris outpost of Villa Atrata, a gallery in western France.
“Paris has been wonderful,” Salon 94 founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn said in an interview, noting that Yanko’s exhibition resulted in a solo show at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine this year that is part of Art Basel Paris’s public program. “They came, they looked very carefully, they bought. So, the test worked for us.”
Greenberg Rohatyn also found in Paris a welcoming environment to show both art and design, the latter of which is the focus of Salon 94 Design. “The city treats art and design as one conversation. It’s in the DNA of the city itself, so that also works for us and our program in Paris,” she said.
Beyond the recent pop-up shows, Salon 94 and Salon 94 Design also have a history with French and Paris-based artists, representing the estate of Niki de Saint Phalle and Rick Owens Furniture, which is managed by his partner Michèle Lamy. At Design Miami Paris, the gallery will show Owens’s work alongside furniture and bronzes by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, as well as pieces by Peter Schlesinger, Urs Fischer, and F Taylor Colantonio.
When thinking of where to set up shop, Greenberg Rohatyn said the gallery was looking for an “intimate space” that would be centrally located. They considered some of Paris’s gallery clusters, like the Marais and Avenue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement, but ultimately settled on the Palais Royal, which offers a “very Parisian experience.” Though commercial galleries might be only slightly farther afield, the Fondation Cartier, the Louvre, and the Bourse de Commerce are all steps away.
“Part of Salon 94 has always been to take a pilgrimage somewhere,” Greenberg Rohatyn explained. “We really do like this idea of discovery—that the body moves through a city or the streets in order to find us.”
She also noted that the Paris space will be visible from the street 24/7, a callback to Salon 94’s previous space on the Bowery, which featured an external screen that was activated by artists like Marilyn Minter and Takeshi Murata. “I love this idea of rubbernecking when you pass by something and then you have to turn back and go see it again,” Greenberg Rohatyn added.
Choosing a more modestly scaled space also gives Salon 94 more flexibility in terms of its program, according to Stephan, who noted that exhibitions at the much larger New York space are often in the works for at least two years. “We wanted to have an exhibition space that allowed us and the artists to react quickly—and it could almost function like a teaser for New York for a larger show later,” she said.
“Artists can achieve a lot in a small space,” Greenberg Rohatyn added, noting that one gallery artist has already reached out with a vision for a spring show in the Paris space. “It’s not only intimate; it’s the type of space that you can take in one breath or one glance at first, and then, of course, [find] things hidden around.”
Roberts’s upcoming exhibition will feature several of her signature collage-based works, including What the water kept (2026), which lends its name to the exhibition’s title. The first work that visitors will encounter, What the water kept features a Black girl wearing a fish-patterned top standing under an umbrella.
“What’s very special about Deborah’s show is that she has thought a lot about this crossing of the Atlantic,” Greenberg Rohatyn said. “The young girl, as she makes her crossing of the Atlantic, with all of the history from the perspective of a Southern Black woman, she’s protected this time by the umbrella.”