Zadie Xa is a must-see before it closes Ocula selects their top 3 shows at Paris Gallery Weekend

Paris Gallery Weekend (24-26 May 2024) sees 94 galleries open their doors to 250 artists this month. Ocula Advisor Eva Fuchs picks out the best show to attend.

Keeping true to her Austrian roots, Eva Fuchs has always kept close tabs on arguably the country's most formidable gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac. Zadie Xa's first solo exhibition with the gallery takes place at Paris Marais; it's also her debut show in France.

Xa's work has continuously explored concepts of identity, particularly in relation to her experience as a Canadian artist of Korean heritage.

In Paris, Xa draws on the visual language of Korean bojagi patchwork tradition and Korea's rich mythological tradition with her upbringing in Vancouver. Notably, the inclusion of denim in her patchwork nods to fashion trends familiar to the artist from her childhood.

Alongside the artist's most recent paintings and textile works is a group of four bronze sculptures - a new facet to her practice. Having trained in painting, Xa has always danced with a range of mediums, feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities of paint.

'I thought about what I was really excited by within the ideas of painting,' Xa told Ocula in 2020. 'It was always something to do with transformative figures or the idea of shapeshifting. I thought, I'm going to cut all of this art-theorising in order to get to making the work: I'm just going to make a jacket.'

At Ropac's gallery in the Marais, you can also catch Sean Scully's exhibition of rare figurative works shown alongside his best-known abstract series, 'Wall of Light' (1998-ongoing) and 'Landline' (2013-ongoing), until 29 July. Over in Pantin, in the northeast of Paris, visit the gallery's first dedicated exhibition to Alex Katz's printmaking practice, alongside a selection of his stand-alone cut-out works (25 May-23 July 2024).