Jean-Marie Appriou’s Perrotin Show Celebrates the Perpetual Promise of Life in the Cosmos
Characterized by masterful sculptural techniques and a richly imaginative symbolic language, French artist Jean-Marie Appriou’s work delves into alternate dimensions of reality, exploring the origins of the cosmos to ponder future evolutions of life. Walking through his latest show, which opened at Perrotin during Art Basel Paris, feels like stepping onto another planet, where Appriou has crafted a deeply personal cosmology, exploring the universe’s mysterious past and its potential futures. The show’s title, “Exonaut Horizon,” evokes humanity’s timeless desire to reach and conquer space, a yearning expressed across cultures and languages—from Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts to European spationauts and Chinese taikonauts, each culture has its own word for those who venture into the sky.
Appriou’s exhibition, inhabited by fantastical and mythological creatures, freely draws from ancient myths and religions to form a multidimensional narrative where the eternal cycle of creation and destruction plays out according to the universe’s timeless rules. Though some creatures appear monstrous, and the tension between nature and human intervention is evident, Appriou emphasizes that this is far from a dystopian or posthuman vision. As he explains during the tour, the exhibition is, in fact, a celebration of life. “It’s all about the promise of life,” he tells Observer.
For the artist, the “Exo” in the title also reflects the sound of our time—the gravitational waves of energy and particles constantly moving through the universe, driving change on scales from the microscopic to the cosmic. This ties into the discovery of exoplanets by the James Webb telescope, symbolizing the ongoing search for life and civilizations beyond our current understanding of the cosmos. “Exo” represents everything that lies just beyond the horizon of what we know—a mystery Appriou seeks to envision and captivate with his extraordinary visionary art.
In the first room lurks a massive sculpture of a crab, a spider or perhaps both. The constellation of Cancer was once considered a portal by the ancient Greeks and Romans, the artist explains. Known as The Gate of Men, it was believed to be the passage through which souls traveled from the heavens to the bodies of the newly born. Beside this figure stands an octopus, its tentacles writhing to create imaginative waves of movement, like particles agitating in the vastness of intergalactic space. Appriou expresses a particular fascination with the octopus, a creature that, having lost its exoskeleton and shell over the course of evolution, has developed remarkable intelligence as a survival strategy.
On the gallery walls hang the “Exonauts,” enigmatic humanoid beings that Appriou envisions as newborns or cosmic mummies, wrapped in chrysalis-like bodies. These humanoids are portrayed in the midst of transformation or reproduction, participating in the mysterious process of mitosis as their cells replicate and merge into new cellular configurations within what appear to be liquid-filled glass helmets. These sculptures evoke the primordial soup, says Appriou, where from the chaos of particles and atoms, life emerged and flourished—creatures evolving from a single cell into a variety of forms. He further notes that his work serves as a reminder that humanity’s ancestry extends far beyond our great apes and mammalian predecessors; it began with greater hybridity between species, from algae and fungi to increasingly complex life forms. This sci-fi-inspired reflection invites viewers to recognize the deep interconnectedness of all creatures, challenging the notion of human superiority in the traditional scientific hierarchy.
At the entrance, an alien-like fossil serves as a reminder of these themes, with fractal faces multiplying from a shell embedded in a stone panel. Nearby, a bas-relief carved in wood and coated with the artist’s signature cosmic aluminum finish offers an alternative narrative of the universe’s genesis, featuring hybrid beings inhabiting an aquatic world.
The work in the next room once again collapses time and geographies, tapping directly into the spirituality and art of ancient Egypt. Here, a sculpture of two solemn twins dominates the space, their seated pose reminiscent of ancient Pharaohic statues. Yet with their futuristic and androgynous astronaut appearances, they transcend this direct reference. According to Appriou, the twins are connected in a sort of osmosis, stoically awaiting the next stages of their bodies’ evolution. Surrounding them on the walls are a series of scarabs, known in ancient Egypt as the creatures that carry the sun from night to day. With black lava from Vesuvius and blue crystallized glass, Appriou engages in an alchemical process that echoes the perpetual flow of life and matter, participating in an endless cycle of transformation.
Next are the silver pyramids, which the artist introduces as symbols of civilization’s excellence. These pyramids are inhabited by small humanoid creatures, reminiscent of the fantastical yet dystopian narrative in René Laloux’s French animated film La Planète Sauvage. That film similarly blended sci-fi and fantasy, depicting the relationship between the small human-like Oms and their much larger, blue-skinned alien oppressors, the Draags, who domesticated them as pets. Facing the pyramids is a marble bas-relief featuring standing penguins—creatures condemned by evolution to flightlessness—while a rocket flying behind them symbolizes humanity’s triumph over such limits through technology. Another green marble bas-relief shows two iguanas wearing Inca hats, gazing at an eclipse, perhaps symbolizing either the end or the beginning of a new civilization.
Dense with multilayered, multicultural symbolism and boundless imagination, Appriou’s show serves as a reminder of the ceaseless movement of matter—where no form is stable and everything is part of an ongoing, unendless process of evolution, constantly giving rise to new realities that may be entirely different from what we’ve known. As the press release states: “The beginnings and ends of worlds are neither creation nor destruction. They form the rhythm of the breath, the ebb, and the flow of all.” The fascinating bestiary Appriou stages reflects the shifting tides of the cosmos, forever changing. He ventures into other temporal and spatial realms, straddling past and future civilizations to celebrate the endless potential for new life.
Jean-Marie Appriou’s “Exonaut Horizon” is on view at Galerie Perrotin in Paris through November 16.