A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
“Enigma” by Beatrice Brandini
One of the most interesting figures in contemporary sculpture, Jean-Marie Appriou, presents a series of works specifically conceived for Project Space at Palazzo Strozzi.
A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
Curated by Arturo Galansino, the exhibition brings together a series of new works by the French artist, a reflection on art history, myth, and literature.
Jean-Marie Appriou’s work blends materials such as aluminum, bronze, glass, clay, and wax, creating figures that span the worlds of humans, animals, and plants, with tangible references to mythology, science fiction, and contemporary culture.
A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
The French artist’s universe is populated by horses, snakes, marine creatures, and hybrid beings that populate a world suspended between land and water, darkness and light.
A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
The title of the exhibition for Project Space at Palazzo Strozzi, CANTO INFINITO, perfectly captures the artist’s message: the idea of a continuous flow in perpetual transformation. However, the reference also pays homage to the greatest of all poets, Dante, who, in his Divine Comedy, suggests a transition through different states of being, in which the search for one’s true self occurs through various processes of transformation.
A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
Appriou investigates and engages in dialogue with literary and mythological sources. His characters are hybrid creatures emerging from a state of constant metamorphosis, inhabiting imaginary spaces where the most important thing is the journey they undertake, understood as knowledge and personal awareness.
A detail from Jean-Marie Appriou’s work
In the Mills of Perception, a bronze work from 2026, Appriou engages in dialogue with the famous doors of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Auguste Rodin, reflecting on the blurred boundary between Heaven and Hell, in which Heaven is represented as a delicate and fragile place, and on the opposite side, Hell, gothic and poetically monstrous.
CANTO INFINITO by Jean- Marie Appriou
And then Apophis, The Key, Mendjet...symbols, emotions, messages where everything remains open to the viewer’s interpretation.
A moment from the press conference, on the right, the Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, Arturo Galansino, and on the right, the artist Jean-Marie Appriou.
“We are particularly pleased to present in Florence the work of one of the most original artists on the international contemporary scene.” Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation.
A beautiful exhibition that you can admire until August 23, 2026.
Enjoy your life!
Beatrice