Over the past few years, I have developed a sculptural practice that implements various wood assemblies around the theme of the trophy; a prideful custom of man that I try to divert into the benefit of food animals by denouncing the ridiculous nature of this practice.
Son of the sculptor Philippe Garel, Quentin Garel was born in Paris in 1975. Graduated from the National School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1998, he was resident at Casa Velasquez from 1998 to 2000.
His work of sculpture, in bronze, iron, wood or porcelain, is characterized by the creation of a bestiary, sometimes very realistic, sometimes reduced to the state of a skeleton. Garel explains: “Over the past few years, I have developed a sculptural practice that implements various wood assemblies around the theme of the trophy; a prideful custom of man that I try to divert into the benefit of food animals by denouncing the ridiculous nature of this practice. I extended this theme through cast iron, which gives it a more monumental dimension and opens it outwards. Such a piece can, for example, use the garden as a base, giving the feeling that it partially crosses the surface of the earth, like the vestige of an emerging past”.
An excellent draughtsman, Garel works on the subjects of his sculptures beforehand on paper and completes each of his sculpture exhibitions with a series of sketches and preparatory studies.
Since the commission in 2009 of a series of sculptures for the new Jardin des Plantes in Lille, Garel has extended his bestiary to animals from the savannah and the jungle. The municipality commissioned him to create a series of trophies constituting a fountain, the Allée des Têtes Cracheuses, with the idea of creating a sort of baroque Noah’s Ark, playful and generous. The preparatory studies (sculptures and drawings) of these animals have been the subject of his recent exhibitions (Paris, Rouen, Epinal, Bologna, Milan): giraffes, hippos, turtles, frogs, crocodiles, chimpanzees, ostriches. are now part of his bestiary.
However, Garel did not forget his first centre of interest and continued his work on the skeleton, with the production of skulls of sheep or killer whales, or even bird skulls (albatross, flamingo, etc.) , while at the same time responding to new public or private commissions (Haute-Normandie Région, Tour Carpe Diem by Aviva at La Défense) and developing a career in the United States (New York, Houston).
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Exhibition “Monozygotes” by Quentin Garel at Loft Gallery in Paris
