After 36 years and over 400 exhibitions, the radical Parisian gallery Air de Paris is closing due to bankruptcy. Co-founders Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino decided to shutter the gallery after its financial situation became fragile, compounded by Bonnefous's health issues (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and their refusal to adapt to the increasingly profit-driven, corporatist art market. The gallery's final show, titled “Oh What a Time,” in Romainville featured works by artists including Joseph Grigely, Amy Vogel, Allen Ruppersberg, Pierre Joseph, Mona Varichon, Pati Hill, Lily van der Stokker, and Trisha Donnelly.
The closure of Air de Paris marks the end of a pivotal force in contemporary art that helped define relational aesthetics through its early exhibitions and nurtured critically challenging artists with deep, personal relationships rather than commercial motives. Its departure underscores growing tensions between small, artist-centric galleries and the art market's shift toward corporate efficiency and profit maximization, a trend the founders publicly criticized after being downgraded at Art Basel. The gallery's legacy lies in its uncompromising support for emerging and experimental practices, offering a model of care and community that many fear is disappearing from the art world.