max
coulon
Né en 1994 à Strasbourg
Vit et travaille à Aubervilliers
"Max Coulon's figurative sculptures draw on a repertoire of found objects, playful forms and architectural conventions. His sampling techniques intersect contradictory operations, repairs of ruined objects and mishandling of ornamental archetypes.
He puts architectural models, classic and modern, to the test, which he replays through intuitive gestures both inside and outside the academy. The logics of the canonical sculpture, dictating its balance, its calibration and its symmetry, are weakened to be better targeted.
The artist eyeing the standards and ornamental characteristics of the neoclassical style, neo-gothic style creatures and grotesque fantasies. Their architects erected strong figures, powerful images to support buildings. As much in filiation as in reaction to this heritage, Max Coulon parodies these genres which excel in the art of the quote. He treats the patterns like inanimate bodies whose matter he stirs. His objects carved in the mass derive from Atlanteans and Caryatids then return to a primitive state of sculpture, to its base which relearns to support itself. The artist fashions youthful forms with sturdy materials such as wood and concrete. It is guided by their properties, to evacuate the technical constraints and thus give them the body that they sometimes already contain. Reattached pieces and joint swellings give rise to a number of stigmata. By provoking their defects, these aggregates of molded objects and sculpted raw materials reflect a physiognomy of materials. Their personalities are embodied in animal figures, bas-reliefs of seven dwarfs or even in house models."
Lila Torquéo
award and residencies
2024 Residency in Lisbon, Portugal
2022 Greenline Foundation, Oignon, France
2021 Prix des amis des Beaux-Arts
2018 Conception and creation of a contemporary nativity scene, St-Eustache Church, with Théophile Stern (funding by Rubis Mecenat)
2017 Conception and creation of a contemporary nativity scene, St-Eustache Church, with Anouk Rabot (funding by Rubis Mecenat)
solo exhibitions
2022 "Riding a horse backwards", Galerie Coucou, Kassel, Germany
2022 "En attendant Balthazar", Galerie du Crous Paris, France
