Jean-Marie Appriou

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Biography

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.


His works has been exhibited at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, at Palais de Tokyo, Paris, at Fondation Lafayette Anticipations, Paris, at Fondation Vincent van Gogh, Arles, at Musée des abattoirs, Toulouse, at Villa Médicis, at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, at Consortium Museum, Dijon, at the Lyon Biennale. He has been invited by the Public Art Fund to present a group of sculptures to the Doris C. Freedman Plaza, south-east entrace of Central Park, New York, and also to the Château de Versailles, to the David Roberts Art Foundation, London, to the Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, to the Wien Biennial, and in the galleries Jan Kaps, Cologne, Eva Presenhuber, Zurich, Vienne and New York, C L E A R I N G, New York and Bruxelles, Massimo de Carlo, London, Perrotin, Shanghai and Kaikai Kiki, Tokyo

Solo exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2023
A, Jean-Marie Appriou, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna
PRC, Forthcoming, MASSIMODECARLO, Hong Kong
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
2018
B, Griffe, langue, rose et écailles, Clearing, Brussels
CH, November, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
F, Open Space #1 Curated by Ludovic Delalandre & Claier Staebler, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
2017
D, Harvest, Jan Kaps, Cologne
USA, Abalon, Clearing, New York
2016
B, Raspberry Rising, Clearing, Brussels
2015
D, Salt Crystals, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2014
F, Sonde D'arc-en-taupe, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (Cur Gallien Déjean)
F, Juillet, Sculpture D'extérieur, Vent of Forêts, Fresnes-au-Mont
2013
F, Moyen Age, Ecole Municipale of the Beaux Arts, Gallery Edouard Manet, Gennevilliers
B, Keymousse Éditions, Vitrine, Brussels
2012
F, Ginger Succubes, Vitrine, Air De Paris, Paris
F, Kinkyramyk, Piacé-le-radieux, Bézar-le Corbusier, Piacé
Group exhibitions
Year
Country, Exhibition Name, Location
2023
A, Jean-Marie Appriou and Andrew Lord (forthcoming), Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna
USA, MAIDEN VOYAGE, Clearing, New York
D, I’ve Only Got Eyes for You, Sammlung Philara, Düsseldorf
I, Prospettive/Perspectives, Langhe Monferrato Roergo, Piedmont
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
2022
F, Les Portes du possible. Art & science-fiction, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz
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
F, In Bloom, MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Paris
2021
SRB, The Dreamers, 58th October Salon, Belgrade Biennal, Beograd
B, Superamas, Clearing, Brussels
F, Grand Ménage, Clearing, Paris
F, Jean-Marie Appriou, Sam Falls, Shara Hughes, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Paris
F, I'VE SEEN THINGS YOU PEOPLE WOULDN'T BELIEVE, FRAC Corsica, Corte
F, La Dame à la licorne, médiévale et si contemporaine, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse
F, Bijoux, Fitzpatrick Gallery, Paris
F, Souffler de son Souffle, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles
I, Portraiture One Century Apart, MASSIMODECARLO, Milano
F, The Imaginary Sea, Fondation Carmignac, Ile de Porquerolles, Hyères
2020
F, Possédé·e·s - Deviance, Performance, Resistance, MO.CO. Panacée, Montpellier
F, Anima Mundi, Saint-Victor, Marseille
D, Dream Baby Dream, Haus Mödrath - Räume für Kunst, Kerpen
2019
UK, Cicatrices, VO Curations, London
F, Parfum d'épines, PHILLIPS X VO CURATIONS, Paris
F, Bêtes de Scène, Fondation Villa Datris, L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
F, Les Chemins du Sud, Musée régional d'art contemporain Occitanie, Sérignan
F, Là où eaux se melent, La Biennale de Lyon, Lyon
B, L’âge de Raison, CLEARING, Bruxelles
2018
CH, Smooth Transitions, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich
F, Childhood: Another Banana Day for the Dream Fish, Palais de Tokyo, Paris

Public collections

Country
Location
Belgium
Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels
France
CNAP, Paris
Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
FRAC Corse
FRAC Ile de France
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
United Kingdom
Zabludowicz Collection, London

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Jean-Marie Appriou
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Jean-Marie Appriou