Click here to see the paintings on display

Click here to see the sculptures on display

With sculptors who devote themselves to metal-working, it can be either all or not much. Or it's the definition of someone who is an artist at heart but who is nonconformist, perceptive and gifted, or otherwise it's a matter of a welder who is itching for fame. I am therefore careful with this metallurgical category of art, but luckily we sometimes come across someone with real, pure and inventive talent who improvises and whose mind is fascinating and whose know-how adds value to this artform that is different yet exciting to discover. Eric Desbouis is one of the latter artists: with his casual handling of the welding torch and iron, he proves to be daring and imaginative as a result of his knowledge, personality and his way of defining objects that are as decorative as they functional. Eric Desbouis offers, with grace and aplomb, a powerful and elegant metallurgy that is equal to his imagination. He humorously uses the repetition of curved iron rods, bolts, spirals, and cogwheels to invent luscious cautious animals, sumptuous shapes in space and he even advocates a form of rigour. As an informed technician, Eric Desbouis experiments with imbalance and evokes a dream-world with industrial and standardized flatiron. This brut and bold design is not easy to achieve and, perceived by the mind's eye, brings life to his funny machines and steadies his strange beings that are worthy of films such as The Golem and Metropolis.

André RUELLAN, art critic

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