Jean-Marie Appriou

Born in 1986

Hometown: Paris

In his work, the French artist Jean-Marie Appriou explores materials such as aluminium, glass, bronze or clay in unconventional processes in his sculptural work. From his experiments of an alchemical nature, human, animal and plant figures emerge, responding to and completing each other, giving rise to different scenarios. This marvellous universe is nourished by various cultural inspirations and references, going from medieval and Egyptian mythology to craftsmanship and pre-Raphaelite painting, from science-fiction literature to cinema and comics. Constituting the artist’s interest in cosmology, both the shape and texture of the material, such as the presented symbolic motives and characters, embody a great subversion and metamorphosis of the past and present. By following the tradition of medieval bas-reliefs seen in Christian churches, which had a significant impact on Appriou growing up in Brittany. The displayed bronze-relief “Alpha and Omega (Mist)” converts Christian tradition and iconography into a more personal, fantastical one by combining it with folkloric, nostalgic, and mythological elements. The dreamlike scenery, featuring a floating, unarmed Arthurian knight and a prehistoric dragon jointly protecting a set of eggs from a snake, can be seen as a general reflection on the significance and relevance of the archetypal chivalric hero and a symbol for the cohesion of human and nonhuman species.

Group Exhibition

The Community Centre

26.06. — 30.07.2021

Jean-Marie Appriou