Sébastien Gouju

Sébastien Gouju manipulates elements of popular culture, misappropriating objects as familiar as the wine pitcher, the potted palm or decorative ceramic objects, clichés from the domestic world that we readily describe as kitsch. Using techniques derived from handicrafts such as earthenware glazing, embroidery, lace making and metal or leatherwork, the artist explores a world of incongruous hybrids and collisions of meaning and form. Once reconfigured, these elements take on the form of images that offer up narratives, sometimes lighthearted and occasionally frightening, situated at the crossroads of everyday life and the fabulous. Sébastien Gouju casts an amused and subversive eye over the world of decorative arts and dynamites the aesthetic qualities of everyday life and the decors that modern man has created for himself.

Sébastien Gouju's works have recently been included in exhibitions at Abbaye Royale de Fontevraud, Fontevraud (FR), Le Cylop, Milly-la-Forêt (FR), La Galerie – Centre d'art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec (FR), Fondation Villa Datris, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue (FR), FRAC Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux (FR), FRAC–Artothèque Limousin, Limoges (FR) and Abbaye Saint André, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Meymac (FR). In 2018, Sébastien Gouju was part of the Artist Residency program of the Hermès Corporate Foundation.
His works is held in the collections of the FRAC Alsace, Sélestat (FR), FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims (FR), Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP), Paris (FR), Collection HBK Saar, Sarrebrück (DE), Collection of the City of Diddeleng (LU), Musée de l'image, Épinal (FR), Colas Fondation, Paris (FR) and the artothèques (art lending centers) of Pessac, Caen, Auxerre and Strasbourg (FR).