Laurence Perratzi

Career

Laurence Perratzi is a French fig­u­ra­tive artist whose work explores the expres­sive poten­tial of the human body. Deeply influ­enced by her back­ground as a com­pet­i­tive ath­lete, her sculp­tures reflect an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into move­ment, bal­ance, and phys­i­cal pres­ence. Her fig­ures appear to defy grav­ity through sub­tle poses or by cap­tur­ing fleet­ing moments of the body in action. 

Visual Style

Over time, the bal­ance and flu­id­ity of these fig­ures have evolved into nar­ra­tive com­po­si­tions that place the body within imag­ined sit­u­a­tions — scenes that invite curios­ity, pro­voke reflec­tion, or evoke a quiet smile.
To extend this dia­logue, Laurence Perratzi incor­po­rates cir­cles, frames, nylon threads sug­gest­ing rain­fall, and cloud-​like forms into her instal­la­tions. These ele­ments cre­ate a the­atri­cal set­ting in which the body inter­acts with the sur­round­ing space, rein­forc­ing its rela­tion­ship with the world beyond itself.

Major Series and Works

Laurence Perratzi’s artis­tic prac­tice con­tin­ues to evolve through an explo­ration of mate­ri­als and sur­face tex­tures. Her sculp­tures range from smooth, refined fin­ishes to more expres­sive, irreg­u­lar tex­tures that enhance the vital­ity and emo­tional pres­ence of each fig­ure.
She is equally inter­ested in unex­pected com­bi­na­tions of mate­ri­als, bring­ing together bronze with paper, fab­ric, Jesmonite, or polyurethane foam — mate­ri­als tra­di­tion­ally con­sid­ered incom­pat­i­ble with the nobil­ity of bronze. These con­trasts intro­duce warmth, spon­tane­ity, and a sense of free­dom into the work, soft­en­ing the inher­ent rigid­ity of cast bronze once it has cooled. Through these mate­r­ial dia­logues, Perratzi cre­ates new forms of bal­ance that chal­lenge grav­ity, give voice to the human body, and embrace an aes­thetic of open­ness and release.
Before ded­i­cat­ing her­self to sculp­ture, Laurence Perratzi grad­u­ated from a lead­ing French busi­ness school in 1993 and also earned a degree in Economics. She began her pro­fes­sional career in finance, work­ing in pri­vate bank­ing at BNP in Hong Kong, inter­na­tional trea­sury at Gap in San Francisco, and later as Managing Director of LetsBuyIt across France, Spain, and Italy. 

Recognition

Although she enjoyed a suc­cess­ful career in finance, Laurence Perratzi dis­cov­ered her pas­sion for sculp­ture in 2000 and grad­u­ally devoted her­self entirely to artis­tic prac­tice. Her work devel­oped sig­nif­i­cantly after mov­ing to London in 2005, where she lived for nearly fif­teen years. Today she has returned to Paris, where her stu­dio is located at Les Frigos de Paris, one of the city’s renowned artist com­mu­ni­ties.
Laurence Perratzi reg­u­larly exhibits at major con­tem­po­rary art fairs and in gal­leries through­out Europe and internationally.

Reading the Work

Laurence Perratzi’s work is defined by fig­ures that appear to chal­lenge grav­ity, bal­anc­ing ten­sion, flu­id­ity, under­stated humour, and care­fully com­posed stag­ing. Her sculp­tures reveal a deeply per­sonal inter­pre­ta­tion of ges­ture, pos­ture, and move­ment, shaped by her expe­ri­ence as an ath­lete. Close obser­va­tion rewards the viewer, as sub­tle shifts in vol­ume, com­po­si­tion, line, tex­ture, or spa­tial bal­ance often reveal the emo­tional depth and quiet strength of each work.