Discover the contemporary work of Nathalie DERRIEN

Self-taught sculptor, I live and work in Brittany.

It was in 2018 that I decided to devote myself entirely to Art, and more particularly to metal sculpture that I discovered during an internship with an artistic ironworker.

After learning the basics of metalworking from a sculptor, I set out on my own to create original and unique works, entirely handcrafted in my workshop.

My encounter with metal was obvious, a real love at first sight! Heating, cutting, twisting, shaping, hammering, transforming...

Physical work, an intense way of being in the world, and the certainty of having found my place...

The choice of steel as a basic material is obviously at the heart of the approach. From this material considered hard, dense, rigid, even "ungrateful", I take great pleasure in show that it is possible to make delicate, soft and poetic objects.

My working method is intuitive, instinctive.

I see my work as a sculptor not as an assembly

of matter, but rather as a kind of stripping away: I want to remove the hard, cold shell of metal to reveal all the suppleness and softness it hides. So I cut, I deform and I shape. With patience and perseverance, I try to understand the subtlety and the fragility of the metal to find the point where it will finally let itself go... and let itself be "vegetated" in a way...

ALGAE has a predominant place in my artistic work and is gradually becoming omnipresent.

The first algae appeared well before the dinosaurs existed, 3.8 billion years ago. They are part of these primordial waters that gave birth to all living things.

I decline the motif of the algae in multiple variations.

Sometimes forms with clear contours, feminine curves

and bright and joyful colors

Sometimes forms with multiple complex cells teeming with life.