Jean-Marie Appriou

Jean-Marie Appriou (b. 1986 in Brest, France) is based in Paris, where he currently lives and works.


It is with remarkable technical skill that Jean-Marie Appriou takes control of sculptural materials - aluminium, bronze, glass, clay, wax—to envisage fantastical worlds inhabited by human, animal and vegetal figures. Through their skillfully constructed scale, his often imposing works nevertheless maintain an intimate relationship with the viewer, as if to better communicate their disturbing strangeness.


Deeply dreamlike, Appriou’s material universe is imbued with telluric concerns approached from an original perspective: that of the legendary. Horses, snakes, locusts, sharks and seahorses compose a bestiary charged with powerful symbolism. They evolve in a dream realm, a marvellous natural world that becomes a theatre of striking characters. Sowers, gatherers, beekeepers and Japanese Ama divers—all represent figures of passage and transformation. The transition between elements—from the aquatic to the aerial, from the underground to the terrestrial—is one of the central themes of the artist's work.


From archaic ages to futuristic civilisations, between dinosaurs and child astronauts, Appriou produces visions on the edge of psychedelia, mixing pop culture and mythologies from Greek and Egyptian antiquity to science fiction. His sculpture combines the allegorical and the sensual, leaving his fingerprints visible on the material. He weaves a paradoxical narrative that unites the past and the future, the ideal and the perceptible, in a series of hallucinatory ecstasies

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Biography

Solo exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2024
F, Jean-Marie Appriou, Perrotin, Paris
2023
F, La Constellation du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Centre Dominique-Vivant Denon, Paris
I, The Traveler, Langhe, Neviglie
PRC, MAGNETIC, MASSIMODECARLO, Hong Kong
A, Gemini, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna
2022
UK, Ophelia, MASSIMODECARLO, London
PRC, Liquid Metal Dream, Perrotin, Shanghai
USA, Flamingo Soup, Clearing, Los Angeles
I, Art Club #35 Curated by Pier Paolo Pancotto, Villa Medici, Roma
2021
J, Event Horizon, Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo
D, Les Soleils de Lucy, Jan Kaps, Cologne
F, Surface Horizon, Lafayette Anticipations, Paris
CH, Fire On The Sea, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
2020
USA, Very Rich Hours, Clearing New York, Brooklyn
2019
F, Seabed, Le Consortium, Dijon
USA, The Horses, (organized by Public Art Fund), Doris C. Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York
US, Jean-Marie Appriou, Freedman Plaza, Central Park, New York
2018
F, Open Space #1 Curated by Ludovic Delalandre & Claier Staebler, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
CH, November, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
B, Griffe, langue, rose et écailles, Clearing, Brussels
2017
USA, Abalon, Clearing, New York
D, Harvest, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2016
B, Raspberry Rising, Clearing, Brussels
2015
D, Salt Crystals, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2014
F, Juillet, Sculpture D'extérieur, Vent of Forêts, Fresnes-au-Mont
F, Sonde D'arc-en-taupe, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Cur Gallien Déjean)
2013
B, Keymousse Éditions, Vitrine, Brussels
F, Moyen Age, Ecole Municipale of the Beaux Arts, Gallery Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers
2012
F, Kinkyramyk, Piacé-le-radieux, Bézar-le Corbusier, Piacé
F, Ginger Succubes, Vitrine, Air De Paris, Paris
Group exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2024
M, White sea olive groves, Malta Biennial, Valletta
D, Eccentric. The Aesthetics of Freedom Curated by Eva Karcher and Bernhart Schwenk, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
F, Van Gogh et les Étoiles, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh Arles, Arles
D, The Persistence of a Present Past Curated by Jesi Khadivi, SOCIETE, Berlin
2023
D, I’ve Only Got Eyes for You, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
A, Jean-Marie Appriou and Andrew Lord (forthcoming), Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna
USA, MAIDEN VOYAGE, Clearing, New York
I, Prospettive/Perspectives, Langhe Monferrato Roergo
D, Sammlung Boros, Boros, Berlino
F, Au hasard des oiseaux, Biennale de Saint-Paul de Vence, Saint-Paul de Vence
PRC, Shanghai·Jing’An International Sculpture Project, Jing'an Sculpture Park, Shanghai
USA, CAB 5, CAB OPENING PUBLIC PROGRAMS, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago
F, Saint Paul de Vence Biennale, Saint Paul de Vence
CH, Melancolia, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich
PRC, Nocturnal Ballads, Perrotin, Shanghai
ROK, Group Show, Galerie Eva Presenhuber X Taxa Seoul, Seoul
PRC, Tie To All The Earth, Teagan Art Space, Bejing
F, Les Fleurs du Mal, Maison Guerlain, Paris
F, Printed Matters: La Chalcographie du Louvre au Consortium, Le Consortium, Dijon
2022
F, Les Portes du possible. Art & science-fiction, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz
F, In Bloom, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Paris
CH, Earthing, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Waldmannstrasse, Zurich
CH, Jean-Marie Appriou, Amy Feldman, Louisa Gagliardi, Kris Lemsalu, Conny Maier, Sofia Mitsollt, Tobias Pils, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Maag Areal, Zurich
2021
I, Portraiture One Century Apart, MASSIMODECARLO, Milano
F, Souffler de son Souffle, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles
F, La Dame à la licorne, médiévale et si contemporaine, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
F, Jean-Marie Appriou, Sam Falls, Shara Hughes, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Paris
F, Grand Ménage, Clearing, Paris
B, Superamas, Clearing, Brussels
F, The Imaginary Sea, Fondation Carmignac, Ile de Porquerolles, Hyères
F, I'VE SEEN THINGS YOU PEOPLE WOULDN'T BELIEVE, FRAC Corsica, Corte
F, Bijoux, Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris

Public collections

Country
Location
Belgium
Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels
China
Long Museum, Shanghai
France
CNAP, Paris
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
FRAC Corse
FRAC Ile de France
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Germany
Borros Collection, Berlin
Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
United Kingdom
Zabludowicz Collection, London

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