Air de Paris, a leading French gallery, is declaring bankruptcy and closing after 36 years, as announced by cofounders Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino to Cultured. The gallery owes money only to its landlord and bank, not to its artists. The closure is attributed to fragile finances and health issues, including Bonnefous's Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The gallery's farewell exhibition, “Oh What a Time,” featured artists such as Trisha Donnelly, Joseph Grigely, Pati Hill, Pierre Joseph, Allen Ruppersberg, Lily van der Stokker, Mona Varichon, and Amy Vogel. Bonnefous will continue to manage the estates of Guy de Cointet, Pati Hill, Dorothy Iannone, Bruno Pelassy, and Sarah Pucci, and work as a curator.
The closure matters because Air de Paris was a pioneering force in the French art scene, having championed now-renowned figures like Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Dorothy Iannone, Paul McCarthy, Philippe Parreno, and Sturtevant. The gallery's decision to close reflects a deliberate distancing from the corporatization of the art market, as Bonnefous noted. The gallery had also made headlines a year earlier by withdrawing from Art Basel's Swiss edition in protest over floor plan changes, criticizing the trend toward a more corporatist model. Its closure signals ongoing tensions between independent galleries and the increasingly commercialized art fair system.