Charles SERRUYA French, b. 1950
A line stretched until it becomes a wire.
Charles Serruya draws in space.
He bends, twists and coils steel wire until a silhouette appears: a nude, a bird, an angel, a face.
Seen from the front, the sculpture reads as a single line; from the side, it almost vanishes. And depending on the lighting, its cast shadow becomes a second work.
A photographer, film-maker and set designer as much as a sculptor, he has worked since the mid-1980s on shadow play and the cut-out silhouette.
That background explains why he treats light as a material in its own right.
Before sculpture came a thousand trades of the image: magazine illustration, shop windows, the artistic direction of a model agency, fashion show set design — including Adeline André's in 1997 — music videos, short films and live performances. That visual culture, shaped by Parisian and New York nights, remains intact in his sculptures.
Since the mid-1980s, his work has revolved around a single idea: the silhouette and its shadow. Steel wire, a rudimentary material, becomes a form of writing. Shapes work like words, and the tangle, always controlled, produces a poetry free of sentimentality. He likes to say that he seeks a kind of baroque achieved with minimal means, yet without minimalism.
Portraiture holds a special place in his work. Far from the official portrait, he stages his sitter, surrounded by real or imagined attributes, and captures their expression with a light touch. These portraits, like his sculptures, can be commissioned.
His work happily spills over from sculpture into objects: he also transforms chairs and armchairs, where the steel wire becomes a back, foliage or lace.
He shares a studio-gallery in Grimaud, and his sculpture studio is in Saint-Tropez.
Selected exhibitions:
- 2022: solo exhibition, Cabane Bambou, Pampelonne beach, Ramatuelle, organised by Art Thema
- 2021: solo exhibition, Cabane Bambou, Pampelonne beach, Ramatuelle, organised by Art Thema
- 2015: group exhibition, Paris
- 2013: solo exhibition, Paris
- 2011: sculptures in the gardens of the Pavillon de Galon, Provence
During his exhibitions with Art Thema, in the gulf of Saint-Tropez, his suspended sculptures echoed the curves of the beach: place and work spoke the same language.
A bespoke portrait, a piece for an interior, a terrace or a hotel project? Write to us: we build the project with you and with the artist.
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Angel (small) -
Apollon & Aphrodite
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Fauteuil Iris
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L'Ange
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L'oiseau au delà & à l'infini
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La Baigneuse
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La Belle Endormie
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La Chevauchée Fantastique
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La fée Alice (small)
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La petite baigneuse (small)
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Le Géant et la Fée / The Giant and the Fairy
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Le Sphinx de Marie-Antoinette
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Lion
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Ma Muse A.
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Milo (small)
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Minotaure
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Poséidon
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Poséidon (small)
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Sant Troupès
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Your Portrait
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Your Portrait sculpture + light box
