LIONEL ESTEVE "NARCISSE"

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