Valérie Lebrun

Ceramicist

Movement captured in ceramics

Valérie manipulates clay as if it were fabric
She makes contemporary artistic ceramics
Trainees regularly work with her

After working as a costume designer for 13 years, Valérie Lebrun left for a professional reintegration project where she was in charge of public mosaic commissions. Aiming to create gigantic human sculptures out of ceramics and mosaics, she did a diploma at the Institut de Céramique de Sèvres. But Valérie never made these sculptures. “When I arrived in Sèvres, I unwittingly adopted its very strong culture,” and so she started to develop her own work instead. After graduating, she exhibited at Galerie Pierre, one of the most important galleries in France. Other exhibitions followed, showcasing her organic pieces which explore the theme of movement and the process of addition. She now lives in Burgundy, where she creates in a spacious workshop, her “bohemian home”, as she calls it.

Interview

What ideas do you focus on?: I would say the notion of movement; it is important that my pieces move, that they are organic. The first image that comes to mind is me as a little child in the bathtub seeing my hair move in the water, or seaweed moving in the sea.
What materials and techniques do you use?: My work is very fine, so I work with stoneware and have a great love for porcelain. I also mix the two to make paper clay – it is extraordinary. One could say my technique is the accumulation of elements next to each other, always adding small elements.
How does your background in costume design influence you?: When I made costumes, I could work for hours on small details. Fabric is something that is very much alive, even though it is a dead material – it follows the body, it moves and you can do whatever you want with it. I touch clay as if it were fabric.
Have there been any memorable moments in your career?: When my first piece was sold in a gallery I burst into endless sobs. Later I learnt that the buyer had just had a breast cancer diagnosis. Also, the young Malian artist Abdoulaye Diakité won a three-month scholarship and I taught him how to make paper clay sculptures.

Valérie Lebrun is a master artisan: she began her career in 2000 and she started teaching in 2003