DOMINIQUE RAYOU

Dominique Rayou is a self-taught French sculptor, born in Bordeaux in 1957. He lives and works in Beynac. Rayou began sculpting in the 1980s, inspired by the work of a relative. He has been creating ever since, exploring a variety of materials such as wood, marble and bronze, with a marked preference for direct carving, which involves the removal of material and demands great concentration. For him, sculpture is a harmonious interaction with the material, a search for synergy between material and thought, without seeking to dominate the material but rather to work in complicity with it. He is particularly fond of marble, a stone that requires a deep understanding of its nature, grain, color and fragility. For Rayou, technique is only one component of the creative act, never an end in itself. His sculptures reflect a duality between the human and the abstract, the visible and the invisible, emphasizing partial representations of the human body such as hands, arms and, above all, busts. Rayou was awarded first prize for sculpture at his first exhibition in 1981. He has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, notably at the Salon d'Automne at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1985, and at the Sénat in Paris in 2000. He has also been a permanent artist at the Het Depot Foundation in the Netherlands since 2004. His recent works explore the interplay of emotions, with an aesthetic concern honed by experience, inspiration and new techniques, notably in silver-chromed bronze with a colorful patina that captures light in a unique way.