From raw materials to work of art

Voyage en toute conscience

With the resemblance between the forest and humanity in mind, this series frees itself from the cycle of life and focuses on the persistence of things.

Marg’rit

Characters all in color, shape and movement, opening their heart to the imagination.

Their story is for you to invent ...

Ocarina

… A being travels and leaves a part of itself along the way, this continues to live through others… Like a breath of wind, this voice diffuses and spreads continuing its way, without end, without borders…

L’éclosion

From birth to take off a life runs...

Joys and sorrows forge a being of light.

Experimental artworks and furniture design

I use some of my textures and materials discovered during my research for collaborative work with other designers to create sculptural luminaires.

Artistic philosophy

My work takes shape as an ongoing human dialogue, materialized in stone, plaster, clay, or paper. This exchange is fleeting, elusive, and constantly shifting yet I seek to give it form.

While my sculptures and installations could be fixed and anchored, I am drawn instead to a state of balanced disequilibrium. It feels closer to the truth of what I wish to express.

My pieces are not meant to remain still. They hover between presence and movement, inviting interaction meant to be handled, listened to, and touched.

About me

Florence Vial is a French visual artist based in the Ain region, near Geneva, Switzerland. She trained in sculpture with the Marseille-based artist Françoise Hamel and later studied drawing at the Lyon School of Fine Arts.

Having lived in several countries, she gradually expanded her artistic practice through encounters with different cultures and techniques. In Indonesia, she discovered ceramics and bronze casting—materials that would become central to her sculptural language. In 2006, she held her first exhibition in Qatar, becoming the first French artist to exhibit there.

Florence Vial works in series, drawing inspiration from the environments she inhabits and the experiences that shape her journey. Over time, her work has evolved toward a more refined and essential language. Influenced by Pablo Gargallo’s hollow portraits, which she reinterprets using bands of clay, as well as by the sculptural purity of Barbara Hepworth and Constantin Brancusi, she seeks forms that reveal the essential.

Bronze has played an important role in her work, not only for its precious quality but also for its reflective surface, allowing viewers to see themselves in the artwork and become part of it.

After returning to France in 2011, she sought to connect her artistic practice with social engagement. She joined the collective Art in the Jungle, volunteering with refugees in Calais, and later continued this work in Geneva with the Hospice Général.

During the lockdown, Florence Vial developed a deeper relationship with the surrounding landscape, which became a place of refuge. This experience gave rise to a reconstructive series exploring parallels between humans and forests, between fallen trees and our ancestors, guided by the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, which embraces imperfection, impermanence, and transformation.

For Florence Vial, art is a way to question the fractures of our humanity and to invite a more attentive relationship with others, nature, and the living world.

Ask me more about my artistic journey

Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

2023 - Entrelacs, exposition en binôme avec l'artiste peintre Marie Thorndahl, Art Gallery Espace Candide, Ferney-Voltaire France.

2022 - Installation "Forêt évanescente", Art Cité, Fontenay-sous-bois France.

2022 - Installation "Chimère" Cloître st Louis Avignon, France.

2015 - Calais together / Art in the jungle, Calais France, parrainé par Ernest Pignon Ernest.

2015 - les 24H de l’Art, Rueil-Malmaison, France.

2015 - Group Art exhibition, Design center Paris, France.

2015 - Souffle de la terre, Croissy, France.

2014 - Exposition du groupe les « artistes de la bastille » Paris, France.

2013 - « Même pas mal » par les Artistes à la Bastille, Paris, France.

2013 - Art squad group, Ethiad Gallery, Abu-Dhabi UAE.

2013 - Watchwomen And Dreamcatcher, Sofitel Abu- Dhabi.

2012 - Art collision , 4 French artists, Art Week, Radisson Royal Dubaï.

2009 - Vision d’un voyage éphémère, Waqif Art Center gallery, Doha Qatar.

Solo exhibitions

2021 - Voyage en toute conscience, L’Orangerie du Château Voltaire, France.

2020 - Marg’rit, Maison du Pays de Voltaire, France.

2017 - Sounds of shades Pour Livre en lumière saison 2017, Ferney-Voltaire, France.

Art fair

2026 - Art Capital salon des artistes français, Grand Palais, Paris.

2025 - Salon d'Automne, Paris Concorde.

2025 - Salon Regain, palais bondy, Lyon.

2023 - Artmuc with Paris Artspace, Munich Germany.

2022 - Art Montpellier, avec la Galerie Arthalia, France.

2015 - Art Nights, Dubaï DIFC, United Arab Emirates.

Biennale

2026 - Arpadi, divonnes-les-bains.

2023- Art en campagne, Biennale Franco-Suisse, 2ème prix du jury.

2021 - Art en Campagne, Biennale Franco-Suisse, 2eme prix du public.

2017 - Biennale grandeur nature, Domaine des forges, France.

2015 - Biennale Européenne de sculpture, Domaine des forges, France.

Gallery

Glustin Gallery, Paris St Ouen.

Art district Gallery, Beirut.

Francois Fontaine Gallery, Geneva.

I regularly lead artistic workshops for schools or associations

If you are interested, don’t hesitate to ask for my availability

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Instagram @flovial.art