Etienne clement

Etienne Clement is a Parisian artist currently working and living in London. He studied at La Sorbonne and Ecole du Louvre before winning the second prize in the European Architectural Photographer of the Year in 1997.

Clément’s works are a collage of toy figures, miniature magazines and false-modelled landscapes that sit in the foreground, set against a background - often a building, a landscape or a ruin - that consists of a photographic image that the artist has previously taken and used as a backdrop, as on a stage.

Etienne Clément’s play-mobile-esque ‘scenes’ always reference an event, whether political, historical or biblical. Neglected objects, often recognisable from youth culture, are used to play down any romanticism that might be associated with art history and biblical allegory referenced in the scene. By using mass-produced, meaningless plastic miniatures as key figures to illustrate an historical event or narrative, Clément makes us question the element of truth. Somehow the event becomes less believable and more like a fictional story.

Etienne Clément’s work has been widely exhibited in the UK, including venues such as the Architectural Association, London; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, Contemporary Art Society’s ARTfutures, Bloomberg SPACE; Jerwood Space; the RIBA Gallery; the Geffrye Museum and the V&A Museum of Childhood in London. He has also exhibited at Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris. He recently exhibited at the Printmakers Gallery, Edinburgh, alongside the likes of the Chapman Brothers, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol.