Salon 94 Opens Permanent Paris Gallery Facing the Palais Royal

By Grace Kim

Salon 94 will open a permanent Paris space at 30 Galerie de Montpensier on October 18, facing the Jardin du Palais Royal. The New York gallery's 323-square-foot outpost debuts with a solo exhibition by Deborah Roberts, running through November 28.

The move follows three years of market-testing. Salon 94 staged pop-up exhibitions near the Palais Royal, starting with two solos in collaboration with Devals gallery: Kennedy Yanko in 2023 and Marina Adams in 2024. Last year's group show ran at 30 Galerie de Montpensier itself, when the address served as the Paris outpost of Villa Atrata, a gallery in western France.

"Artists really led us to think about a space here," Fabienne Stephan, Salon 94's European director, who will lead the space, told ARTnews. "Artists love presenting their work in the architecture and the history of the city."

The pop-ups delivered results. Founder Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn noted that Yanko's exhibition led to a solo show at the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine this year, part of Art Basel Paris's public program. "Paris has been wonderful," she said. "They came, they looked very carefully, they bought. So, the test worked for us."

Why Paris, and why the Palais Royal?

Greenberg Rohatyn said the gallery wanted an "intimate space" in a central location. It considered Paris's gallery clusters, including the Marais and Avenue Montaigne in the 8th arrondissement, before settling on the Palais Royal for what she called a "very Parisian experience." 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," she explained. "We really do like this idea of discovery—that the body moves through a city or the streets in order to find us."

Paris also suits the gallery's hybrid program. Beyond Salon 94 Design, the gallery represents the estate of Niki de Saint Phalle and Rick Owens Furniture, managed by Owens's partner Michèle Lamy. "The city treats art and design as one conversation," Greenberg Rohatyn said. "It's in the DNA of the city itself."

At Design Miami Paris, the gallery will show Owens's work alongside furniture and bronzes by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, plus pieces by Peter Schlesinger, Urs Fischer, and F Taylor Colantonio.

What does the small footprint change?

Practically, speed. Exhibitions at the gallery's much larger New York space are typically 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," Stephan said.

"Artists can achieve a lot in a small space," Greenberg Rohatyn added. One gallery artist has already proposed a spring show for Paris. She described the room as one "you can take in one breath or one glance at first, and then, of course, [find] things hidden around."

The space will also be visible from the street around the clock — a callback to Salon 94's former Bowery location, where an external screen was activated by artists including 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," she said.

Deborah Roberts opens the program

Roberts's exhibition takes its title from What the water kept (2026), a collage-based work showing a Black girl in a fish-patterned top standing under an umbrella. It will be the first work visitors encounter, alongside several of her signature collages.

"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."

With a booked Roberts opening, a spring show already pitched, and a Design Miami Paris presentation this season, Salon 94 arrives in Paris with a program in motion rather than a promise of one.