max
coulon
max
coulon
Born in 1994 (Starsbourg, France), Max Coulon is a French artist living and working in Aubervilliers, France.
"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
works
Animal XII, 2025
Concrete and pigments
66 x 26 x 51 cm
Rock bottom, 2024
Concrete, rebar and pigments
159 x 48 x 67 cm
Portrait of Max Coulon © Photo : Guido Borso
View of the exhibition "Sieste Jaune", Galerie Romero Paprocki Paris, 2023
© Photo : Nicolas Brasseur
Animal XIII, 2025
Concrete and pigments
50 x 34 x 60 cm
Flat feet friend, 2024
Concrete and pigments
100 x 60 x 60 cm
education
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris
solo exhibitions
2024
Residency End, Junqueira Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2023
Snoozed, Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Luxembourg
Ygreves Season 3, Fungi Imperfecti, Nanterre, France
2022
Riding a Horse Backwards, Coucou Gallery, Kassel, Germany
En Attendant Balthazar, Galerie du Crous, Paris, France
C’est beau, c’est loin, curated by Ludivine Gonthier Jeune Creation Gallery, Romainville, France
Spieltrieb, Diploma Exhibition, Beaux-Arts de Paris, France
2021
If France Weren’t There, Karlsruhe, Germany
Would Be by the Sea, with Ludivine Gonthier and Paul F. Millet, Haid-und-Neu- Strasse, Karlsruhe, Germany
2019
We Forgot the Radio, with Anouk Rabot, Galerie du Crous, Paris, France Hinterhalt, with Raoul Muck, Botanical Garden, Karlsruhe, Germany
2018
DNAP Exhibition, Beaux-Arts de Paris, Paris, France
awards and residencies
2024
Junqueira Residency, Lisbon, Portugal
2023
Vent des Forêts, Fresnes-au-Mont, France
2022
Greenline Foundation, Ognon, France
2021
Prix des Amis des Beaux-Arts, France
2018
Design and creation of a contemporary nativity scene, St- Eustache Church, with Théophile Stern (funded by Rubis Mecenat)
2017
Design and creation of a contemporary nativity scene, St- Eustache Church, with Anouk Rabot (funded by Rubis Mecenat)
collective exhibitions
2025
Le feu au lac, Halle Verrière de Meisenthal, Meisenthal, France
Grandeur Nature II - L'esprit de la forêt, Château de Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau, France
Les Ombres seules restent, Julio artist - run space, Paris, France
MiArt, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Milano, Italy
2024
Nos maisons apparentées, Presqu'île, Parc de sculptures Les Tanneries, CACIN, Amilly, France
La jeunesse a toujours raison même quand elle a tort, Strouk Gallery, Paris, France Sculpture of a Square I, Luxembourg Art Week, Luxembourg Voyage à Nantes, 2024 edition, Nantes, France
Un été au Havre, 2024 edition, Le Havre, France
Arco Lisbon, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
Art Brussels, Belgium Art Paris, France
Retour vers le Présent, Poush at Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Paris, France
2023
Artissima Turin, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Turin, Italy
Good Symptoms, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Paris, France
Vent des Forêts 2023, Edition Residency End, France
Art Brussels, Nosbaum Reding Gallery, Brussels, Belgium
Sieste Jaune, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Paris, France
Wood Wood Wooden, Jousse Entreprise Gallery, Paris, France
2022
1832, L’Inlassable Gallery, Paris, France
Luxembourg Art Week, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Luxembourg
SWAB Barcelona Art Fair, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Italian Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain Poésie, La FAB - Agnès B, Paris, France IMMÉMORIAL, curated by Lana Salvatori, Alfortville, France
Forest Fantasy, invited by Sarah Valente, Ognon, France
Art Paris, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris, France
Blur Me Tender, Romero Paprocki Gallery, Paris, France
2021
Crû, curated by Lila Torquéo, Exhibition Theater, Beaux-Arts de Paris, France
Crush, selected by Gaël Charbau, Beaux-Arts de Paris, France
2020
Rundgang 20, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, Germany
70th Edition of Jeune Création – En être, Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Paris-Pantin, France Power Takes Charge of You, Jeune Création Gallery, Romainville, France
All is One, Orgelfabrik, Cultural Center of Durlach, Germany
Marie Louise Invites You to Her Home, Strasbourg, France
2019
Zoom, curated by Leni Hoffman, Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe, Germany
Mirabelle, 2025
Concrete and pigments
51 x 42 x 59 cm
Flat feet friend, 2024
Concrete and pigments
74 x 44 x 35 cm