Maxwell-Baynes is pleased to present, in collaboration with Galerie REVEL, the solo exhibition of the talented French visual artist Anton Laborde, taking place from April 11 to May 30, 2025, at our Bordeaux office.
In this new series of works, marquetry becomes a powerful contemporary pictorial language, straddling figuration and metaphor. It is an immersive encounter between nature and urbanity, inviting a deeper reflection on our environment.
Photo credit: David Loridan
A jungle shaped by wood and stories
Anton Laborde, born in 1999 in Fontainebleau, is a visual artist whose mastery of marquetry and unique artistic vision stand out. Trained in cabinetmaking from the age of 15 with the prestigious Compagnons du Tour de France, he developed a meticulous rigor that structures his entire practice.
Each piece is entirely handcrafted, using a wide range of wood species—maple, sycamore, amaranth, lemonwood, or tulipwood—some left natural, others tinted by the artist himself, to compose lush, dreamlike landscapes. His jungles are inhabited by human figures with closed eyes, strange objects, and exuberant vegetation. The jungle becomes an enigmatic space, both a matrix, a myth, and a mirror of contemporary humanity.
An art between memory and modernity
Laborde’s artistic vision is rooted in his childhood in Auroville, India—an experimental utopian city founded in 1968 on a once-barren land. Though he avoids turning this experience into a central theme, it deeply influences his relationship with nature. As art historian Nathalie Viot notes, “His practice blends observation and memory, building a mental landscape where memories and futuristic visions overlap.”
Mixed media collage of natural and stained wood on wooden panel
Photo credit: David Loridan
A humanist and engaged gaze, according to Nathalie Viot
Viot offers a profound insight into Laborde’s work, in which the jungle is far more than a setting: “For him, the jungle contains everything—it embodies humanity, its tensions and its harmony.”
“His monumental frescoes, entirely devoted to the jungle, are at once figurative and metaphorical. The figures he inserts—often with closed eyes, lost in introspection—emerge from dense vegetal entanglements, creating a sensation of weightlessness akin to an aquatic environment. There is no frame: the jungle spills into an infinite universe, a cosmic turbulence.”
His artistic engagement becomes especially evident in works such as Danser sous les étoiles and L’apaisement de l’indomptable: la boxeuse.
This latter piece belongs to Laborde’s ongoing “jungle” cycle, where nature—lush, untamed, and organic—becomes the stage for introspection or transcendence, marked by the sudden appearance of a human figure. In this case, a woman, arms raised and gloved, stands powerfully within a vibrant aquatic landscape, crossed by swirling currents and stylized waterfalls.
Rather than being swept away, the figure floats in equilibrium with her environment. She embodies a struggle—yet one that has already been transcended. Her calm face, upright posture, and serene energy suggest an inner victory. The river, a metaphor for inner motion, echoes an intimate liberation.
The choice of a female subject is intentional, underscoring a feminist intention that places the woman at the center of transformation and soft power. She is both actor and witness in a world where strength is found in self-reconciliation, and where nature—majestic and wild—welcomes this silent metamorphosis.
Mixed media collage of natural and stained wood on wooden panel, marquetry, mother-of-pearl, and silver leaf
Danser sous les étoiles merges symbolism and figuration. The jungle is both a physical and mental space—a projection of our desires, our inner tensions, and our longing for harmony. In this nocturnal composition bathed in shades of blue, a character with closed eyes seems to levitate, dancing under a starlit sky. Their fluid, undulating body evokes surrender, freedom, even trance. The stylized, geometric vegetation overflows the frame, erasing the boundary between the real and the imaginary. Totemic palm trees, a mother-of-pearl moon, and contrasting textures give the scene a dreamlike quality. The artist evokes a collective memory from his childhood in Auroville—a moment of pure freedom and connection with the world. The jungle becomes an extension of the inner self, a space where intimacy and cosmos converge.
A critical reflection on our relationship with the environment
Viot also highlights the critical and contemporary edge of Laborde’s work:
“Unexpected elements—refrigerators, gas pumps, winged wheelbarrows—emerge in this ecosystem, blurring the lines between reality and imagination. Through these objects—cell phones, cameras—he questions our relationship with their use, our dependence on technology, on social media, and ‘modern connectivity,’ and what it does to us: a form of enslavement, a hold on our lives.”
These juxtapositions invite reflection on how technology and human influence reshape our connection with nature.
Mixed media collage of natural and stained wood on wooden panel, marquetry
About Galerie REVEL
Founded in 2021, Galerie REVEL is a contemporary art gallery committed to amplifying voices from geographies often marginalized in Western art discourses. It distinguishes itself by supporting a bold international selection of both emerging and established artists whose work engages with contemporary concerns—identity, gender, ecology, and decoloniality.
Far from being just a white cube, Galerie REVEL is a space of reflection and experimentation. It encourages artists to break away from conventional forms and contributes actively to the diversification of artistic narratives. Through this collaboration with Christie’s Maxwell-Baynes, the gallery continues to enrich Bordeaux’s cultural landscape, creating meaningful encounters between art, heritage, and contemporary creation.