ART CITIES: Shanghai-Jean Marie Appriou
Jean-Marie Appriou graduated from the École régionale des Beaux-Arts de Rennes in 2010, and has since developed a technical mastery of materials — aluminium, bronze, glass, clay, and wax — to bring to life imaginary worlds teeming with human, animal, and vegetal figures. Spanning from archaic eras to futuristic civilizations, and from dinosaurs to child astronauts, Appriou creates visions that verge on the psychedelic, blending pop culture with mythology — from Ancient Greece and Egypt to science fiction.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: TANK Shanghai Archive
In “Cosmic Clock”, Jean-Marie Appriou unfolds a panoramic vision of sculpture as a living cosmos, transforming TANK Shanghai’s vast former oil reservoir into a pulsating observatory of form, myth, and elemental resonance. On view from November 11, 2025 to March 8, 2026, this ambitious solo exhibition positions Appriou’s work at the intersection of material alchemy and celestial imagination, revealing sculpture not as static object but as a breathing, temporal force.
At the heart of “Cosmic Clock” is a concept of sculptural rhythm as cosmic pulse. Beneath the circular dome, each work operates as a signifier in an astral cycle: forms suspended between the vegetal and the mineral, the human and the animal, the terrestrial and the celestial. Crafted in aluminum, bronze, and blown glass, the sculptures suggest emergence from a world in continual metamorphosis, their surfaces imbued with the “slow memory of the elements.” Within this vast shell — an architecture emblematic of transformation — Appriou orchestrates a dialogue between contrasting realms: biology and astronomy, mythology and alchemy, East and West.
Appriou’s language of form reflects a remarkable technical command of materials. Whether through molten metals or delicate glass, he constructs fantastical worlds inhabited by hybrid figures that engage the viewer with an uncanny familiarity. The scale of the works, often monumental, paradoxically preserves an intimate rapport with the spectator, heightening the sense of disturbance and wonder.
The artist reinvents the zodiac as a universal lexicon — a map of correspondences that connects elemental forces with temporal rhythms. In doing so, “Cosmic Clock” positions TANK Shanghai as a celestial observatory where civilizations converse and myth articulates through metal. Here, each sculpture becomes a beat in a larger cosmic tempo, inviting viewers to contemplate sculpture as the breath of the universe itself.
Appriou’s practice is deeply rooted in a dreamlike visual universe, one that blends pop culture with ancient mythologies and speculative futures. His bestiary — featuring horses, serpents, locusts, sharks, and seahorses — carries potent symbolic charge, evoking transformation and passage across elemental thresholds. Figures such as sowers, beekeepers, and Japanese Ama divers act as intermediaries between worlds, reinforcing themes of movement and transition central to the artist’s work.
Photo: Jean-Marie Appriou, Cosmic Clock, Exhibition view, TANK Shanghai, 2025, Courtesy the artist and TANK Shanghai
Info: TANK Shanghai, 2380 Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District, Shanghai, Duration: 11/11/2025-8/3/2026, Days & Hours: Tue-Fri 12:00-18:00, Sat-Sun 10:00-18:00, http://tankshanghai.com/
