The Galerie de l’Ancienne Poste especially dedicated to contemporary ceramics is delighted to present the first solo exhibition of the sculptor ceramist Laurent Petit. A selection of 15 or so pieces, some unprecedented and created especially for the exhibition, illustrates the development of the artist over the last few years.  

• Laurent Petit – Press release
• Images of the Exhibition

The work of Laurent Petit is obvious and disturbing. Obvious in what it offers us to look at : a work both sculptural and pictorial in which the ceramist imposes his artistic style without rejecting the pottery tradition which has guided him towards his own language. Disturbing in what it asks us to understand. The forms are manifestly inspired by trees – But so knowing. Concave barks and branches poised in wonders of equilibrium. Stumps and trunks of wood having the appearance of minerals. Spells cast by Nature? The magic of ceramics? The prowess of the artist? Nature entrapped in refinement. Laurent Petit applies the blues, pinks, whites and very pale greens – evocative of a dawn sky or the setting sun – as an artist paints his canvas or as a composer notes a stave on his score. The titles also play their own music, melodic or resounding –“Arbologie”, “Tronquine”, “Arcalienne”, “ Tégule”, “Barcalogie” or “Opertine”. The charm works.
Axelle Corty
Journalist & Art Critic.
Extract from the catalogue of the exhibition