Perrotin Seoul is delighted to present a solo exhibition of Lionel Estève, following his recent presentation at Sèvres, Cité de la Céramique, France. The exhibition comprises new works, each one unique, designed and produced at the historical workshops. The Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres is one of the principal European porcelain manufactories. Founded in 1740, it was the supplier for royal, then imperial and finally national orders for very high quality objects.

For over four years and in close collaboration with Sèvres’ artisans, Lionel Estève elaborated large beveled porcelain plaques, whose platinum surfaces are disrupted by colorful shockwaves. The latter well illustrate the rich palette of enamels and crystallizations available at Sèvres, whose excellence relies on the exceptional quality of its materials manufactured on-site according to ancestral techniques preserved and perfected since the eighteenth century. Lionel Estève’s sculptural oeuvre focuses on nature and the emotional relations we maintain with the natural world. His works created at Sèvres vibrantly demonstrate the artist’s colorful vocabulary in which natural elements, suspended in time and space, are saturated with pigments.

The porcelain creations thus become shimmering liquid surfaces, testimony to a time when man could only contemplate his image when reflected upon the water’s surface. For Lionel Estève, these objects are “pieces of puddles beneath the rain, torrential fragments, reflections above the abyss... there where man has sought an answer to the question ‘who am I?’” A very special thanks to La Manufacture de Sèvres.