© Gael Leprévost
Anton Laborde is a French visual artist. He considers wood as the fertile medium through which he expresses his unlimited creativity. Inspired by painters such as Henri Rousseau, known as the Douanier, but also Klimt, Botticelli, or Van Gogh, Anton Laborde works on scenes made of superimpositions and collages of wood - reminiscent of the marquetry -, with soft and shimmering colours.
Like a painter with his colours and brushes, Laborde creates, with sheets of wood that he colours himself, landscapes imbued with dreaminess and poetry. His works explore the complex relationships between natural environments, humans and man-made objects.
Like a painter with his colours and brushes, Laborde creates, with sheets of wood that he colours himself, landscapes imbued with dreaminess and poetry. His works explore the complex relationships between natural environments, humans and man-made objects.
In place of traditional rules and techniques, and far from an academicism obstructing his creativity, Anton Laborde's approach is both experimental and rigorous. His creative process integrates the search for adequate materials consistent with the intention of the creative gesture.
The artist creates his compositions as a painter applies colours to canvas, using various precious and semi-precious woods. In his works, the intense reds come from the African padouk, while the shades of red-brown to pinkish yellow are offered by the amboyna or Indian padouk, which reveals its pinkish yellow hues. The light yellows come from the lemon tree from the island of Ceylon, while the purple appears thanks to the amaranth. European wood species such as pear tree, which gives soft pinks, sycamore maple, olive tree, walnut and many others are also used. In this way, the artist develops his own repertoire of colours. The blues and greens are created by the artist himself through along process of hand dyeing lasting two months.
With his scalpel, the artist cuts his wooden sheets piece by piece. Each work requires about a hundred hours to create a single visual element such as a plant or a character. A work of patience and meditation that contrasts with the speed of today's lifestyles.
After four years of training with the Companions of the Tour de France and his residency with the famous Irish designer Joseph Walsh, Anton Laborde set up his studio in 2019 in Bordeaux.
After four years of training with the Companions of the Tour de France and his residency with the famous Irish designer Joseph Walsh, Anton Laborde set up his studio in 2019 in Bordeaux.
Anton Laborde is the winner of several awards including in 2017 the companions' award, in 2018 the national award of the Concours Général des métiers (CGM), as well as in 2018 the regional and departmental award of the Rotary Club. In 2022 he won the Prix de la Jeune Création des Métiers d'art Atelier d'art de France (Young Creation Award of the Atelier d'art de France). Anton Laborde has been published in the French and international press such as the Financial Times, IDEAT France, ELLE Décoration France, Le Figaro among others.