Born in 1952 in Limoges, France, Jean Marie FIORI, graduated from the National School of Fine Arts (École Nationale des Beaux-arts) in Paris, devoted to Sculpture, and more specifically to the representation of animals. Before that, he was a painter and realized numerous projects of decoration.
In his workshop populated by his “beasts”, as an inheritor of the realistic artists during the inter-war period, he works alabaster and marble in direct carving. The subtle translucency of the material allows him to develop his talent by giving a rich resonance to the color that characterizes his sculptures.
Jean-Marie FIORI adapts his technique to different animals that he portrays, from pure, smooth lines of oryx or panda to rough, waved fur of ram and bear.
During the years, he improved his mastery of bronze and enriched his imaginary bestiary of designed furniture and monumental installations.
In 1997, he was the architect of “The Passage of Animals (Tour aux bêtes)” in Majorque, Spain; and in 1999, “The Dolmen of Serris (Dolmen de Serris)” for Marne-la-Vallée. In 2000, he conceived a zodiac for La Monnaie de Paris (Hotel des Monnaies de Paris).
It was at this time that he aroused admiration and friendship of the decorator Alberto Pinto. Then he developed a language of plastic arts closer to the Decorative Arts, as Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne did in their times. He transformed deer into chairs and falcon into table, with a sense of humor and his own originality specific to his works.
For the immense variety of his forms, the strength given to his sculptures and his delicate work with the pigments that color his œuvre, he was rewarded by the prize Edouard-Marcel Sandoz in 2009 and exhibited in the Museum of the 1930s of Boulogne (Musée des Années 30 de Boulogne) in 2012.
In 2010, Jean-Marie FIORI was selected by the Chinese Official Committee of World Expo in Shanghai to create a set of urban furniture consisting of five benches. Inspired by traditional Chinese symbols, he reinterpreted turtle, bull, tiger, buffalo and duck.
This commission gave a new breath to his art, offering him the opportunity to combine the nobility of bronze to the strength of lacquer for the first time.
Renewed emotions encourage artist to create a series of four heads of Macaw in 2013.
In 2014, he pursued his monumental work with a bronze piece “Arc of birds (Arche aux oiseaux)” for the astonishing architecture, following the series started with the “Wall of Adam and Eve (Mur d’Adam et Eve)”. And he composed an original poetic space where art and nature echoed together.
On the occasion of French May 2014 and Art Basel Hong Kong, Jean-Marie FIORI realized a monumental bronze work – Monument for a Horse – exhibited in the heart of the Statue Square in Central.
This piece is then exhibited in Beirut in September 2014 for the Beirut Art Week in front of Le Gray Hotel and later presented for the first time in Paris during PAD 2015 at the Tuileries Garden.
In October 2014, a retrospective exhibition of the sculptor’s works is dedicated to him at Galerie DUMONTEIL in New York.
In his workshop populated by his “beasts”, as an inheritor of the realistic artists during the inter-war period, he works alabaster and marble in direct carving. The subtle translucency of the material allows him to develop his talent by giving a rich resonance to the color that characterizes his sculptures.
Jean-Marie FIORI adapts his technique to different animals that he portrays, from pure, smooth lines of oryx or panda to rough, waved fur of ram and bear.
During the years, he improved his mastery of bronze and enriched his imaginary bestiary of designed furniture and monumental installations.
In 1997, he was the architect of “The Passage of Animals (Tour aux bêtes)” in Majorque, Spain; and in 1999, “The Dolmen of Serris (Dolmen de Serris)” for Marne-la-Vallée. In 2000, he conceived a zodiac for La Monnaie de Paris (Hotel des Monnaies de Paris).
It was at this time that he aroused admiration and friendship of the decorator Alberto Pinto. Then he developed a language of plastic arts closer to the Decorative Arts, as Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne did in their times. He transformed deer into chairs and falcon into table, with a sense of humor and his own originality specific to his works.
For the immense variety of his forms, the strength given to his sculptures and his delicate work with the pigments that color his œuvre, he was rewarded by the prize Edouard-Marcel Sandoz in 2009 and exhibited in the Museum of the 1930s of Boulogne (Musée des Années 30 de Boulogne) in 2012.
In 2010, Jean-Marie FIORI was selected by the Chinese Official Committee of World Expo in Shanghai to create a set of urban furniture consisting of five benches. Inspired by traditional Chinese symbols, he reinterpreted turtle, bull, tiger, buffalo and duck.
This commission gave a new breath to his art, offering him the opportunity to combine the nobility of bronze to the strength of lacquer for the first time.
Renewed emotions encourage artist to create a series of four heads of Macaw in 2013.
In 2014, he pursued his monumental work with a bronze piece “Arc of birds (Arche aux oiseaux)” for the astonishing architecture, following the series started with the “Wall of Adam and Eve (Mur d’Adam et Eve)”. And he composed an original poetic space where art and nature echoed together.
On the occasion of French May 2014 and Art Basel Hong Kong, Jean-Marie FIORI realized a monumental bronze work – Monument for a Horse – exhibited in the heart of the Statue Square in Central.
This piece is then exhibited in Beirut in September 2014 for the Beirut Art Week in front of Le Gray Hotel and later presented for the first time in Paris during PAD 2015 at the Tuileries Garden.
In October 2014, a retrospective exhibition of the sculptor’s works is dedicated to him at Galerie DUMONTEIL in New York.
