Sylvie Mangaud

Career

Sylvie Mangaud was born in Paris in 1961, where she con­tin­ues to live and work. 

Visual Style

Zen, Lightness, Freedom, Venus, Harmony, and Emotion… These titles given by Sylvie Mangaud to her elon­gated bronze sculp­tures also describe the enchant­ing world into which she invites us.

Major Series and Works

It was the inter­sec­tion of her dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties that nat­u­rally led her toward sculp­ture in the 1990s. Her ini­tial train­ing as a pho­tog­ra­pher enabled her to cap­ture move­ment and emo­tion, pre­serv­ing the beauty of a fleet­ing moment. At the same time, she pur­sued stud­ies in mor­phol­ogy, allow­ing her to bet­ter observe and under­stand the sub­tleties of the human body. What fol­lowed was guided by her innate artis­tic tal­ent and highly sen­si­tive imag­i­na­tion.
From the begin­ning, nudes and ani­mals became her pre­ferred ter­ri­tory of expres­sion. Her cre­ations embody light­ness, refine­ment, and ele­gance, with the purity of their lines express­ing a gen­uine sense of aes­thetic balance. 

Recognition

The result is a sus­pended moment in time that gives all of her bronzes an elon­gated, airy, and sen­sual dimen­sion. While remain­ing faith­ful to her dis­tinc­tive style, her sculp­tures have also been adapted into crys­tal by Daum and rein­ter­preted through wire mesh. 

Reading the Work

Sylvie Mangaud’s work finds its bal­ance in a world of elon­gated, grace­ful, and sen­si­tive bronze sculp­tures cen­tered on move­ment, emo­tion, and har­mony. It is dis­tin­guished by a del­i­cate qual­ity of line, a pre­cise obser­va­tion of the body, and an abil­ity to cap­ture move­ment with­out mak­ing it rigid. Viewing her works rewards close atten­tion to nuance: a com­po­si­tional detail, a way of main­tain­ing dis­tance from the sub­ject, a vol­ume, a line, or a mate­r­ial often reveals their deeper meaning.