Upstairs Art Fair Launches Inaugural European Edition in Paris
Featuring works by India Sachi alongside half gallery’s “suitcase show.”
Summary
- The Upstairs Art Fair debuts in Paris at Hotel Grand Amour, coinciding with Art Basel Paris
- Highlights include India Sachi’s first European solo show and half gallery’s suitcase show featuring narrative painters and abstract works
The Upstairs Art Fair made its European debut in Paris this week, transforming the Hotel Grand Amour into an intimate showcase of contemporary art. Originally launched in Amagansett in 2017, the fair quickly gained a reputation for spotlighting emerging talent, with early participants including now-celebrated names such as Ewa Juszkiewicz, Louise Bonnet and Anna Weyant. After a six-year hiatus, the fair returns with room takeovers by Half Gallery, Megan Mulrooney and Bureau Art, coinciding with Art Basel Paris.
Among the highlights is New York-based artist India Sachi’s first solo and European presentation, curated by Sarah Daoui. Installed within a hotel suite, the exhibition explores themes of memory, intimacy, and metamorphosis, drawing on Sachi’s childhood experiences of living in hotels while traveling with her father. Her works, often rooted in self-portraiture, merge figures with foliage and ornament to explore concealment and shapeshifting. The presentation places Sachi’s practice in dialogue with women surrealists such as Leonor Fini and Claude Cahun, reframing the Parisian interior as a site of resistance, transformation, and self-authored identity.
half gallery, led by director Erin Goldberger, contributes a “suitcase show” in the hotel’s penthouse, featuring artists from its roster including Andie Dinkin, Leonard Baby, Emiliana Henriquez and Hiejin Yoo. Known for their narrative paintings that blur the line between fiction and lived experience, these works are complemented by abstract pieces from Demetrius Wilson and Angela China. Together, the presentation underscores Half Gallery’s tradition of embracing unconventional exhibition spaces, offering visitors a domestic-scale encounter with works that balance fantasy, memory, and abstraction within the intimate setting of the fair.
Ending on October 24, The Upstairs Art Fair is free and open to the public.
Upstairs Art Fair
Hotel Grand Amour
18 Rue de la Fidélité,
75010 Paris, France
