Étienne Chambaud

Étienne Chambaud (b. 1980, Mulhouse, France) is a French artist who lives and works in Paris. Working across sculpture, installation, film, photography, drawing, and found objects, his practice examines the categories through which we understand artworks, objects, and the world around us. Questions of context, reference, transformation, and interpretation are central to his work, which often destabilizes distinctions between artwork and artifact, nature and culture, image and object.

Chambaud approaches the artwork not as an autonomous object but as something produced through relationships: to its surroundings, its history, other works, and the systems through which it is displayed and interpreted. Appropriation, fragmentation, repetition, and material transformation recur throughout his practice, allowing familiar forms and objects to acquire new and often ambiguous meanings. Titles, texts, and references frequently operate as integral elements of the works themselves, creating layered networks of associations that resist a single reading.

Chambaud studied at ECAL in Lausanne, the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, and Villa Arson in Nice, and participated in the International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York. In 2022, he received a PhD through the SACRe program of PSL University, the École Normale Supérieure, and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

His solo exhibitions include Lâme at LaM – Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut (2022), Negative Knots at Kunsthalle Mulhouse (2018), and Color Suite at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2009). His work has also been presented at institutions including Centre Pompidou, Paris, Punta della Dogana, Venice, Whitechapel Gallery, London, Kunsthalle Wien, MACBA, Barcelona, and The Drawing Center, New York. His work is held in numerous public and private collections, including Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, MACBA, Fondation LVMH, Lafayette Anticipations, and Kadist.