- Art & Design
Artist and architect Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut plays with architectural principles and takes you into an enchanting and unique world of wood and natural, warm colours. His exhibition A Lame Vive was a wonderful representation of his wooden works.
The French Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut trained as an architect. The creative genius then worked for several major fashion brands as a creative architect and is also active as an artist. With an eventful and varied career, Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut finds himself on the frontier and in a mix of activities as an architect, artist, designer and woodworker. The 'sculptural huts' really put Mathiaut on the map in the international architecture, design and art world in 1995. He started with this 'small architecture' as a hobby, making huts for children's rooms, and then also for collectors and events,. ‘It's about constructing and deconstructing, while travelling in a world of childhood, with a notion of shelter,’ he says of these designs. Afterwards, Mathiaut also started working on his so-called 'landscape furniture'. ‘I related them to my architecture. You have the feeling that you are in a drawing. I am now trying to connect everything, to create a complete world where architecture develops around nature, and where nature and architecture but also furniture meet,’ says the designer. 
An oasis of wood
Mathiaut creates wooden furniture and architecture for dreamers and collectors: always unique and tailor-made pieces, from large realisations in oak to small architecture in pine. Mathiaut has an exceptional and almost insurmountable bond with the forest of hundred-year-old oaks and pines, where he walks almost every day. ‘I have an almost shamanistic relationship with this environment. These trees inspire me and feed my artistic practice,’ he says. The architect therefore works mainly with natural and noble materials such as stone, wood and also metal. He wants to show respect for the environment and uses many recycled materials such as cardboard and paper. He often goes in search of tree trunks and branches which he turns into 'landscape furniture'. Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut experiments a lot, but always looks for a balance of forms, somewhere between strength and humility, to strive for timelessness. ‘I work a lot with volume measurement, geometry, perspectives and multiplication of surprises. There is always some play and the interpretations are infinite. A stool can become a coffee table or even a piece of furniture,’ says Mathiaut.
Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut recently held a wonderful solo exhibition called 'A Lame Vive' in Paris, organised by and at the Kolkhoze Gallery. The pieces displayed here perfectly represent the artist's aesthetics, ideas and working methods. The decorative furniture is all hand-carved and sculpted in the block. A Lame Vive showed an almost primitive-looking collection of unique furniture and artworks inspired by his travels in Japan. Among other things, you could admire a wall bookcase, a 'sculpture desk' and a huge table, chairs and stools. 
This architect, artist and designer already has a lot of impressive works and projects on his record, and this list will continue to grow. Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut continues to amaze with his passion for wood and talent for architecture and design.
Want to know more about Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut? Read the full story in Imagicasa Summer 2022.
Images courtesy of Jean-Guillaume Mathiaut