ÉTIENNE VIARD / French, born in 1954
WORKS
“UTOPIAN BALANCES” - Dominique Païni, Director of Cultural Development at Centre Pompidou Paris
"I was impressed by your conviction in the utopian balances expressed through your layered compositions, your intertwining forms, your folds and unfolds, and your expansions that teeter on the brink of falling, collapsing, or tipping over. Your commitment to abstraction avoids any form of gratuitous formalism. These so-called balances, which often seem to defy gravity, offer a paradoxical sense of calm in these times that seem drawn toward the abyss. Utopian, then, because it is not merely the instability of your compositions—which engenders the risk and anxiety of their collapse—that invites us to come to terms with our human condition.
It is their momentum. Perhaps that is the source of this sense of utopia."
CAREER
Étienne Viard’s work is part of the minimalist movement, which seeks to reduce the visual vocabulary to one of its most basic components: the line. Here, the line is pushed to its limits: stretched, curved, fragmented. The imbalance and apparent lightness of his structures contrast with the very material from which they are made: steel, with all its strength and weight. Whether in bar or sheet form, black polished or Corten steel, it is cut and then cold-formed by the sculptor, who pushes the metal’s tension to its limit.
While his works seem to defy the known laws of physics, they are by no means static; on the contrary, they evoke a sense of precarious balance. The illusion of this precarious balance is meticulously crafted: “It all stems from a joint that cannot be seen, from a weld that I want to be discreet, yet which holds the whole together.”
Self-taught and initially a ceramicist, Étienne Viard turned to metal sculpture in the early 1990s. Then came steel... Which would become his medium of choice, remain with him forever, and bring him recognition. His work was then exhibited in galleries and at international art fairs in Europe, North America, and Asia (BRAFA, Art Paris, Art Taipei, etc.). His monumental works are now part of numerous prestigious private collections and public institutions.
EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)
2026
BRAFA, Brussels – Belgium
Galerie Tournemine, La Baule – France
2025
Galerie Berthet Aittouarès, “The Limits of the Possible” – France
Context Art Miami – USA
2024
Art Miami – USA
Galerie Faider, Brussels – Belgium
2022
Château des Alpilles, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence – France
Château de Thézan, Saint-Didier – France
2021
Galerie Berthet Aittouarès, Paris – France
Galerie Faider, Brussels – Belgium
2019
Art Paris, Grand Palais – France
Faider Gallery, Brussels – Belgium
2018
BRAFA, Brussels – Belgium
Art Paris, Grand Palais – France
Dunhuang National Museum – China
Taiyuan Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art – Taiwan
Ménerbes 84 Sculpture Trail – France
2017
Château Sainte-Roseline, Les Arcs-sur-Argens – France
2016
BRAFA, Brussels – Belgium
Berthet Aittouarès Gallery, Paris – France
Ménerbes Sculpture Trail – France
Pascal Lainé Gallery, Ménerbes – France
2015
BRAFA, Brussels – Belgium
Four Seasons Grand Hotel, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat – France
Inside Out Gallery, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence – France
2014
Le Soleil sur la Place Gallery, Lyon – France
2013
The Piper Gallery, London – England
2012
Cloister of the Saint-Charles Chapel, Avignon – France (nine monumental sculptures)
2011
Festival of Lights, Lyon – France (with Caroline Vachet Gallery, six monumental sculptures)
French Senate Orangery, Paris – France
2010
Pierre Salinger Foundation, Le Thor – France
Monumental Sculptures, Caroline Vachet Gallery, Lyon – France
2007
Berthet Aittouarès Gallery, Paris – France
2006
BC2 Gallery, Luxembourg
2005
Avant Garden Gallery, New York – USA
2004
Avant Garden Gallery, New York – USA
2003
Cité Radieuse, Le Corbusier, Marseille – France
Espace Gaillane, Avignon – France
2000
Modus Gallery, Berlin – Germany
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS (SELECTION)
Pathline Park, Silicon Valley, California, USA (nine monumental sculptures)
Dordogne General Council, France
Manoir de Soisay, France
SADEV 94 Urban Development Corporation, France
Honoré 91 Association, Paris
Letcher & Schoenfeld, New York, USA
E. & J.J. Queyranne, Lyon, France
Thomas Pheasant, Washington, USA
Jean Moulin University, Lyon 3, France
