Under the vaulted ceiling of the Grand Palais, Art Basel Paris 2025 witnessed a significant shift: alongside established names, a new generation of artists is emerging, redefining the languages and priorities of contemporary art. Many collectors came to the fair with the explicit goal of seeing their works—often for the first time in person—and adding them to their collections. It's no coincidence that on the "First Choice" and "VIP" preview days, their works were among the first to be reserved.
It's true: a fair alone isn't enough to define global trends. Yet, strolling through the stands at this edition, one thing clearly emerged. Figurative painting remains the dominant medium, transversal to local and international galleries and capable of asserting itself with quality works, a variety of visions, and approaches. This centrality in Paris was echoed outside the fair, where the major Gerhard Richter retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton reaffirms the vitality of the pictorial medium in contemporary debate.
But it wasn't just painting. Several galleries also chose to present sculptural works by artists known primarily for their two-dimensionality, signaling a broadening of languages and a growing attention to the material tensions of the work – a sign of an artistic maturity now recognized by the market. This selection brings together some of the most notable artists under 35 (or almost) seen at the fair: artists who have distinguished themselves for their coherence, the solidity of their work, and their presence in the art system. It's not intended to be a ranking, but rather a critical reading of the latest contemporary trends, in an attempt to map some trajectories already underway. Age, too, shouldn't be considered a criterion of value, but it remains a significant fact: these artists have built a recognizable language and a credible path in a relatively short time.
Kyle Dunn (1990)
Gallery: P·P·O·W
At Art Basel Paris, Kyle Dunn surprises at the P·P·O·W booth with a rare large horizontal format that opens his painting to an internal narrative dimension: multiple scenes in the same painting, like compressed frames of a complex psychological intimacy. His figures, sculpted by an almost theatrical directional light, oscillate between desire and isolation, in an emotional realism that borders on the metaphysical. He confirms his position as a promising voice in the new American figurative movement, finally also visible in Europe with a display of great technical and narrative ambition.
Born in 1990 in Livonia, Michigan, he lives and works in New York. In 2024, he presented his first solo museum exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford), following his participation in the exhibition Fire Figure Fantasy at ICA Miami (2022). He has exhibited at Marlborough Gallery (London), Stephen Friedman Gallery (New York), Galerie Judin (Berlin), and Vielmetter (Los Angeles), among others. His works are part of international public collections such as the Dallas Museum of Art, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, the Sunpride Foundation (Hong Kong) and the X Museum (Beijing).