Francis Guerrier is a French sculptor born in 1964 in Marseille.

He comes from a family of artists, with a father (Raymond Guerrier) and grandfather (Francis Montanier) who were painters, and a mother (Francesca Guerrier) who was a ceramist. This immersion in an artistic world from his childhood in Eygalières has profoundly influenced his career.

At the age of 19, Guerrier moved to Paris to explore new opportunities. At the age of 25, he created ‘Maginem’, an events company that he ran for ten years. This experience enabled him to acquire a variety of technical skills, particularly in wood and metalworking.

In 2000, at the age of 36, Guerrier decided to become a sculptor. He moved into his grandfather’s house and studio in Paris, where he immersed himself in the family’s artistic heritage. For about ten years, he developed his art in Paris, but felt limited by the constraints of the capital for his monumental projects.

In 2015, Guerrier returned to Eygalières, the village where he grew up. This move enabled him to create large-scale works, such as his aluminium ‘Angel Feathers’, which are 8 and 12 metres high. Guerrier’s art is characterised by his ability to fuse different techniques and influences. He creates a unique alchemy, as in his work ‘Regards de lumière’. His work reflects both convergences with his family heritage and differences, particularly in his choice of sculpture rather than painting.

Today, Francis Guerrier is recognised as an accomplished artist, capable of creating fascinating works that play with light, space and matter.

Francis Guerrier’s sculptures revolve around several main themes:

• Nature and the cosmos: Guerrier draws his inspiration from natural forms, the sky, the stars and galaxies. His works often reflect the curves, moons, trajectories and spirals present in nature, from seashells to constellations.
• Balance and harmony: The artist seeks to achieve a sense of balance in his creations, respecting the energy and intrinsic properties of the materials he uses.
• Light: Guerrier incorporates light into his steel sculptures, creating plays of light and shadow that add an extra dimension to his works.
• The monumental: He aspires to create large-scale sculptures that ‘put man in his place’, such as his 12-metre-high ‘Plume’.
• Memory and dreams: His first exhibitions explored the themes of the sky, dreams and memory.
• Interaction with the environment: Guerrier seeks to create a synergy between his works and their environment, offering new perspectives in the landscape.

These themes reflect Guerrier’s philosophy, which seeks to get closer to original forms rather than tending towards abstraction, while creating a link between the earth, the sky and the sea.

Today, my work with metal still consists of giving volume to flat sheets of metal that I cut but above all bend along curved lines. It is the metal that, through its own energy, resilience and resistance, will shape itself and create volume. After having imagined complex forms, often based on the spiral, and now in search of original forms, my latest pieces are inspired by the moon, by the sky descending on the earth.
Francis Guerrier