Arnauld le Calvé
France

Born in 1977 in Dreux, Arnauld Le Calvé is an instinctive sculptor who creates a dialogue between two contrasting materials: clay, which demands patience and attentiveness, and glass, which requires speed and precision. After training in glassmaking through the *Compagnonnage* tradition between 2003 and 2006, he became an assistant at CIRVA in Marseille, where he worked on Ettore Sottsass’s *Kachinas*—his first encounter with the totemic figure. In 2011, he opened his own glassblowing studio near Toulouse and subsequently taught himself ceramics. He developed a unique technique: blowing hot glass directly into grogged stoneware, creating translucent bubbles within the raw material. Based in northern Dordogne—and inspired by nature, his reading, and a deep connection to Brazil and its animist beliefs—he began developing his *Totems* series in 2020. These stoneware guardians, ranging from thirty to sixty centimeters in height and featuring granular, volcanic-like surfaces, blend the archaic with the futuristic. The stoneware holds the memory of the world, while the blown glass—transformed into a luminous gaze—embodies the breath of life and the fragility of living things. Their vibrant colors imbue these figures with a poetry that is at once playful and mysterious. His work has been exhibited at the Révélations fair, Maison & Objet, and various ceramics festivals, as well as in Japan. “Once finished, the pieces no longer belong to me; I become a spectator,” he confides—a way of offering up living sculptures that remain open to the emotions of the viewer.