About Jean Marie Appriou

A ship sailing into the sky, lifted by a column of nets. The oars hang helplessly in the air. On the afterdeck stand two alarmed but not very active aliens. They do not even hold the lines butreach out questioningly into the void. They are figures with glass helmets in which faces are fused, wearing suits made of writhing snakes. They are Appriou’s personal version of space travellers, on their way to planets beyond our solar system. The ship’s body of aluminiumplanks is light and elegant. It seems to float on a wind that passes by the barely billowing sails.

In his art, Appriou reaches out to unknown systems in the cosmos. In doing so, he uses numerous references to ancient myths from Greece and Egypt, so that the past and a possible future merge with each other.

 At the entrance to Central Park, New York, Appriou’s huge horse sculptures stand as surreal sentries. The artist was inspired by the nearby horses that pull tourists through the city in carriages. He was also inspired by Augustus Saint-Gauden’s gilded monument to William Tecumseh Sherman, on horseback, on the Grand Army Plaza. 

 Appriou’s work has previously been exhibited in Paris, London, Oslo, Vienna, Brussels, Zurich, Cologne and New York. His work is part of leading international collections of both museums and private collectors. 

ARTZUID showed two large sculptures of his in 2021: The Big Watcher and The Big Traveler, both from 2019. The two dromedaries seem to float on a blistering layer of air in the hot desert. They are a direct reference to Romantic Orientalism that emerged in the 19th century.