Raphaël Emine: Blossom Rocks is on view at Galerie Idéale, Paris
May 23 – June 14, 2025
Born in 1986, Raphaël Emine is a French artist based in Paris. A graduate of the Villa Arson (Nice fine art school), he has dedicated himself for several years to sculpture and installation, working with materials such as ceramics and glass, which he often juxtaposes with natural elements—branches, moss, bark, and stones collected from the environment.
At the crossroads of entomology, botany, craft techniques, and new technologies, Raphaël Emine approaches his practice as a series of experiments where invention meets serendipity.
He established a ceramic studio at “DOC,” a former squat in Paris’s 19th arrondissement that has gradually transformed into a cultural third space, blending exhibitions and artist studios with community-based activities. There, he became involved with the “anarcho-geeks”—a group focused on developing and sharing technological tools and production knowledge. His work, deeply rooted in science fiction, explores what Alain Damasio describes as bio-punk: the reconfiguration of technology and the living world as a means of emancipation.
In recent years, Emine has focused on ceramics as his primary medium, working with 3D printing to create his sculptures. This process allows him to print forms in semi-liquid clay that must be supported by honeycomb-like structures to avoid collapse. He begins with drawings that he transforms into 3D models through symmetry, fractals, and extrusion. Each stage of the process—requiring several software tools—gradually alters the work. Technology reshapes the form, which grows into architecture, mimicking the habitats of tiny builders like bees, termites, and ants. He then returns to these raw clay forms for hand modeling, glazing, and firing. The resulting sculptures often evoke the universe of H.R. Giger, emerging from a long, multi-step process where each transformation leaves its mark.
Emine sometimes installs these artifacts outdoors, combining them with organic materials, stacking them into strange monuments reminiscent of the worlds of Antoni Gaudí or the Facteur Cheval, and allowing them to be overtaken by local flora and fauna. A ruin-like aesthetic emerges, confronting us with the romantic notion of the end of civilization.
His work has been shown in several solo and group exhibitions, and he is part of a broader artistic movement alongside figures like Tomás Saraceno, Pierre Huyghe, and Bianca Bondi—artists working between low-tech and high-tech, the organic and the mineral, nature and culture.
Text by Damien Levy
Contact
damienlevy@galerie-ideale.com
Galerie Idéale
11 rue d’Athènes
75009, Paris
France
Photos courtesy of the Galerie Idéale and Adrien Thibault.
