Anne Cecile was born in 1987 in Lavelanet, France. She demonstrated a natural interest in art and other manual activities during her childhood, and in 2000 she entered her first drawing and painting class. She
learnt classical rules of compositions, anatomy, and harmony of colors along with different techniques such as drawing, pastel, china ink and oil painting. This first classical study of art would be the foundation for the artistic development to come.
Anne Cecile enrolled in a business school in 2006 while studying clay sculpture in the evening. She later graduated with a Master in Business Administration from the Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2012, she went to New York City where she graduated with a Master in Art History from Christie’s Education.
During her time in New York, she studied metal sculpture and écorché sculpture and the Art Student League. Then, in 2013 Anne Cecile stayed at the Fundacion Pablo Atchugarry where she learnt how to cut marble.
Following this experience marble becomes her main material. In 2015, she opened her studio in the Pyrenean Mountains in France where she still lives and works.
Her works has been shown internationally, it can be found in the public collection of Museo MUST, Vimercate, Italy, and in the private collection of Pablo Atchugarry. Anne Cecile has won several prizes for her work, including the YICCA Art Prize in 2017 and the Mary Beth Gutkowski Scholarship in 2019.
Anne Cecile was born in 1987 in Lavelanet, France. She demonstrated a natural interest in art and other manual activities during her childhood, and in 2000 she entered her first drawing and painting class. She
learnt classical rules of compositions, anatomy, and harmony of colors along with different techniques such as drawing, pastel, china ink and oil painting. This first classical study of art would be the foundation for the artistic development to come.
Anne Cecile enrolled in a business school in 2006 while studying clay sculpture in the evening. She later graduated with a Master in Business Administration from the Florida Gulf Coast University. In 2012, she went to New York City where she graduated with a Master in Art History from Christie’s Education.
During her time in New York, she studied metal sculpture and écorché sculpture and the Art Student League. Then, in 2013 Anne Cecile stayed at the Fundacion Pablo Atchugarry where she learnt how to cut marble.
Following this experience marble becomes her main material. In 2015, she opened her studio in the Pyrenean Mountains in France where she still lives and works.
Her works has been shown internationally, it can be found in the public collection of Museo MUST, Vimercate, Italy, and in the private collection of Pablo Atchugarry. Anne Cecile has won several prizes for her work, including the YICCA Art Prize in 2017 and the Mary Beth Gutkowski Scholarship in 2019.
I am searching the spectrum of the personal and the emotional, and how our contemporary consumerist society affects the way we live, feel and develop the notion of the selves.
I am interested in how human continue to be true to their core in this environment despite the daily violence it obliges us to face and to commit to other. My works can be understood as elaborations of emotional reactions to societal issues.
As a woman, my work is reflective of the distinctive challenges that I face in my private life, and I believe it shines a light and a commentary on societal issues that are inherent of our time.
Anne Cécile Surga
Can you tell us a little about yourself and about the kind of art you create?
I was born in France in 1987 and graduated with a Master in Business Administration in 2010. In 2013, I graduated from the Christie’s Education Master Program in New York City. I always wanted to be part of the art world from as far as I can remember. Creation has consistently been a part of me: in my childhood I was crafting rag dolls or playing with salt dough, and in my teens I began to create with papier maché and clay. As the artist lifestyle was deemed a little bit too obscure, I went to a business school, which then allowed me to work in the art world from the managerial side. Even though it was going well, I decided to become a full-time artist three years ago. I now live and work in the south of France, and my materials are marble and mixed media. Without a formal education in visual art, I’ve been able to discover and establish the rules myself. My art practice is the result of introspection on a universal level. I try to understand my feelings and thoughts through the prism of contemporary society, and then try to translate them into a sculpture that can connect with others.
What about your primary medium do you like best?
My primary medium is marble. My favorite is Statuario white marble from Carrara in Italy. I also work with French marble that I can easily find in the Pyrenean Mountains, where I live, and with pink Portuguese marble. I think marble is quite an unusual material for contemporary art as I feel it will always be linked to classical sculpture, but to me it is the most satisfying material I can work with. Carrara marble especially allows you to create an infinity of details with a clarity that cannot be equaled. There is also an intrinsic beauty to the material, in my opinion everything looks better in marble! It gives an ethereal feeling while being of unbelievable strength. On the other hand, marble is not easy to work with. One must be armed with patience to remove the stone in order to reveal the form from the block. It is physically and intellectually challenging–physically, as one requires the strength to work the material, and intellectually as it is a reverse process: you take material out of the sculpture and you are not allowed to make a mistake. This emotional, intellectual, and physical challenge makes marble sculpture the most complete art form to me.
Can you tell us about the piece you donated for this auction?
The work is a bas-relief made of French black marble and Portuguese pink marble. I have been discovering the possibilities of marble and developing my artistic approach on my own in the last years. There is a predominance of anatomy in my earlier works, and I have recently explored abstraction through an organic approach. This piece could be understood as a snapshot of my recent artistic evolutions.A recurring aspect of my work is to insert other marbles or materials on my marble pieces. I made bas-reliefs using black and white marbles, and sculptures where I mixed steel, wood, gold leaf, ribbon, or even piercing with marble. Formal beauty is important in my approach: the line, the balance, and also the finesse of execution are essential elements of my work.
Who has shaped your development as an artist?
One of most the influential people in my artistic development has been Pablo Atchugarry. Not only has he been the one to introduce me to marble cutting –from how to handle the tools to how to choose a marble bloc, or how to move these heavy stones–but he also accepted me in his artistic circle, thus allowing me to learn a lot from this world-renown artist on a daily basis. Being born in a non-artistic family, it has been eyes- and heart-opening to realise all that can be made thanks to art.
Having him as a role model teaches me so many values and life lessons. Marble does require an incredible amount of working hours and that can lead to much frustration and sometimes the will to quit, but being mentored by a passionate and hard-working individual made all the difference for me. I learned you can never work too much or be too good at your practice, but most importantly that art and all its benefices have to be shared with as many as possible. I do wish I will one day have the opportunity to make such a positive impact in a young artist’s life.
Solo Shows
2021 “Obscènes” Galerie Sabine Bayasli, Paris, France
2020 “Tout Mou for You” Sozinho, Toulouse, France
2019 “Cuerpos de Emociones” Museo de la Ciudad, Mostoles, Spain
“Gritos Silenciosos” Ket Galeria, Barcelona, Spain
2018 “Scriptures” Elaboratory, Paris, France
2016 “Il Ne Fallait Pas Me Creer Libre” Galerie des Carmes, Pamiers, France
Group Shows
2021 Group Show, Fatale Art, Montreal, Canada
Survey, Anne-Cécile Surga & Sophie Ullrich, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami, USA
Materia e Materiali, Rossovermiglio Gallery, Padova, Italy
Summer Show, Galeria de las Misiones, José Ignacio, Uruguay
2020 “Signs” Anne-Cécile Surga & Paolo Treni at Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany
ArtePadova, RossovermiglioArte, Padova, Italia
“FRESH RICE” Rice Initiative, MUTUO Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Positions Art Fair, presented by Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, Germany
“Quarantine Exhibition” curated by Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Space52, Athens, Greece
“On Form” Asthall Manor, UK
Bergamo Arte Fiera, RossovermiglioArte, Bergamo, Italia
2019: “Core of Cores” curated by Mengyue Zhang, IESA Gallery, Paris, France
“Champs de Vision” Espace Art et Liberté, Charenton-Le-Pont, France
ArtePadova, RossovermiglioArte, Padova, Italia
“Georges Mathieu – Anne Cecile Surga” RossovermiglioArte, Padova, Italy
Festival de la Sculpture “Passage(s) ou l’Art du Transitoire,” Espace Bourdelle, Montauban, France
“Skiagrafia” curated by Anna Dona, Vitrine DD, Paris, France
“V_AIR 2019: Transiti” curated by Maria Paula Zedda, Museo MUST, Vimercate, Italy
“We are Fatale” by Fatale Art, LivArt, Montreal, Canada
Biennale de Gentilly, Gentilly, France
PARC LIMA, Sammer Gallery, Lima, Peru
2018: “Encuentros en el Arte” Museo Gurvich, Montevideo, Uruguay
Salon d’Automne, selected as part of the Grand Prix Arbustes, Paris, France
“Endangered Bodies: Representing and Policing the Body in Western Culture” School of Arts and Humanities, University of Lisbon, Lisbonne, Portugal
“Salon Arbustes” Mantes-La-Jolie, France
“Dissonances” L’Oeil du 8, Paris, France
”VII Bienal Internacional de Escultura Valle de los Sueños” Puebla de la Sierra, Spain
“Premio Telax” Galeria Antoni Pinyol, Reus, Spain
Festival de la Sculpture “La poétique des matériaux”, Espace Bourdelle, Montauban, France
Biennale Arte Dolomiti, Cibiana di Cadore, Italy
“Unspoken” by Sweet Art, London, UK
“WAR : Quello que Rimane” Metamorfosi Gallery, Vicenza, Italia
“Salon de la Sculpture de Bressuire” Bressuire, France
Art Rooms, London, UK
2017: YICCA 2017, Museum Crocetti, Roma, Italy
“CHUNK3” curated by Team Caef, Brescia, Italy
Chester Art Fair, selected as part of the Visual Art Open Finalists, Chester, UK
Paratissima, Turino, Italy
“Somos Il-Limitades” by the FemArt Association, Barcelona, Spain
Salon d’Automne, selected as part of the Grand Prix Arbustes, Paris, France
“Salon Arbustes” Mantes-La-Jolie, France
“Setba Jove 2017” Fundacion Setba, Barcelona, Spain
“Biennale Interactive de Sculpture Contemporaine en Bourgogne” Nolay, France
“Talents de Femmes” Club Soroptimist, Foix, France
“23ieme Festival d’Art Actuel – L’Art dans l’Orne” Ecouches-les-Vallees Seran, France
“SenseFils” Centre Civico de la Barceloneta, Curated by Carla Bossi, Barcelona, Spain (dossier)
“Eros” Galerie La Ralentie, Paris, France
“Le Desordre Amoureux” Galerie Art’Course, Strasbourg, France
2016 “Gender and Freedom” Belgrade International Triennal of Expended Media, Serbia
“Cent Centimetres Carres V” Galerie du Philosophe, Carla Bayle, France
“Focus: Black and White” Black Box Gallery, Portland, USA
“Amore e Scelta / Love and Choice” Collezione Fondazione Pablo Atchugarry, Museo MIIT, Torino, Italia
“Gaia III” Mairie 2ieme Arrondissement, Paris, France
“Gaia II” Galerie Amarrage, Saint-Ouen, France
2015 “Staves, Gussets, Laths, Tenons” The Hollows, Brooklyn, USA
“Amore et Scelta” Foundation Abbazia di Rosazzo, Manzano, Italy
« Future and Behind » Con-Temporary 5, Venezia, Italy
« Auto-Chemistry » The Hollows, Brooklyn, USA
“Festival de la Sculpture de Bressuire” Verger des Sculpteurs, Bressuire, France
2014 “IAF International Art Festival” Highline Loft Gallery Chelsea, New York City, USA
“Me, Selfie, and I” Creations Gallery, New York City, USA
“Something Borrowed, Something New” JP Studio, Bushwick Open Studios 2014, Brooklyn, USA
2013 “Paper Bombing” Independent artists, New York City, USA
2012 Minimart Singapore
Art Residency
2019 Tuscany Study, granted by the Mary Beth Gutkowski Scholarsphip, Carrara, Italy
Vimercate Art in Residence, Vimercate, Italy
2014 Atelier Pablo Atchugarry, Punta del Este, Uruguay Marble sculpture
Awards
2020 On Form Bursary, Asthall, UK
V EdiciónConcurso Arte Contemporáneo IDC, Vigo, Spain
2019 Mary Beth Gutkowski Scholarship
2018 “Prix Arbustes” attributed by Les Amis du Salon d’Automne de Paris, Paris, France
“Grand Prix Arbustes” Salon Arbustes, Mantes-la-Jolie, France
Medalla de Oro, VII Bienal Internacional de Escultura Valle de los Sueños, Puebla de la Sierra, Spain
2017 1st Prize, YICCA 2017, Roma, Italy
“Prix Jeune Espoir” Biennale Interactive de Sculpture Contemporaine en Bourgogne, Nolay, France
“Grand Prix Arbustes” Salon Arbustes, Mantes-la-Jolie, France