ArtDayMe : Kimia Nakhai : The sixth edition of the MENART Fair—Europe’s only international art fair dedicated exclusively to modern and contemporary art from the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region—took place from October 25 to 27, 2025 in Paris, held during Paris Art Week. The 2025 theme, titled “Ode to Softness”, marked a subtle yet powerful curatorial direction: inviting work that explores vulnerability, quiet power, and resilience rather than spectacle. 

In this edition, some 40 galleries from 18 countries exhibited the work of over 117 artists. Alongside that were panel talks and performances: among them, live drawing by Kevork Mourad and a performance-painting by Sarine Semerjian, which further emphasised the fair’s interest in cross-disciplinary, experiential art. 

Visitor engagement proved lively: the fair welcomed over 7,000 visitors and achieved strong market results, with 90 % of participating galleries reporting acquisitions—particularly in the mid-price segment (roughly €8,000 to €15,000). The fair thus reinforced its role as a meeting point between the MENA-region art ecosystem and the wider European/international art market.

Significantly, MENART Fair continues to stake a claim not merely as a commercial fair but as a cultural platform: promoting gender parity (with more than half the participating artists women), giving under-represented geographies space, and encouraging dialogue over display. All told, MENART Fair 2025 succeeded in delivering a refined balance of content and commerce, demonstrating that softness can be a compelling artistic stance in a world of ever-increasing visual intensity.