Appriou graduated from École régionale des beaux-arts de Rennes in 2010.
Jean-Marie Appriou’s sculptures evoke archaic forms and are inspired by contemporary but also mythological and futuristic worlds. His works are often crafted from aluminum and bronze, the design possibilities of which the artist furthers through experimentation with finishes and in combination with other materials, including blown glass. By alluding to familiar forms, be they animal or human, and developing his unique, almost alchemical approach to his source material, Appriou has created his very own mythology.
Appriou’s work has been exhibited at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 2018 as the inaugural artist in Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Open Space program, which invites artists to create site-specific projects to appear within the Fondation’s Frank Gehry designed building in Paris.
In 2019 he was invited by the Public Art Fund to present a group of sculptures at the Doris C. Freedman Plaza at the southeast entrance to Central Park in New York, at the Château de Versailles and at the Vienna Biennale. In 2023, he was chosen by Donatien Grau to engrave a copper plate and produce an etching, La Constellation du Louvre, 2023 that entered the Musée du Louvre collection.
Jean-Marie Appriou’s work is part of the collections of Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; the Zabludowicz Collection, London; the Musée du Louvre collection; Borros Collection, Berlin; Fondation Pinault, Venice; Long Museum, Shanghai; Museo Jumex, Mexico City and Vanhaerents Art Collection, Brussels, among others.
Jean-Marie Appriou has presented several outdoor public commissions, including a set of camel works for Art Basel in Miami Beach (2016); Grotto (2018), a set of sculptures presented at the Tuileries Garden for FIAC Paris 2019; Noses (2018), a permanent installation in Zurich‘s Maagplatz; and The Horses (2020), a suite of three surreal equestrian sculptures commissioned by the New York Public Art Fund for Central Park.
His solo shows include; Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze (2026); Palazzo al Bosco, San Casciano in Val di Pesa, IT (2026); TANK Museum, Shanghai, PRC (2025); La cinquième essence, MO.CO. – La Panacée, Montpellier, FR (2025); Whale Song, Now + There, Boston, Boston U.S. (2024); La Constellation du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, FR (2023); The Traveler, Langhe, Neviglie, IT (2023); Villa Medici, Rome, I (2022); The Horses, organized by Public Art Fund, Doris C. Freedman Plaza, New York, NY, US (2019–2020); Seabed, Le Consortium, Dijon, FR (2019–2020); and Open Space #1, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR (2018). Appriou participated in Là où les eaux se mêlent, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, FR (2019) with a major installation titled Roncier.
His institutional group exhibitions include Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale, ARTZUID, Amsterdam, NL (2025); The Air is Subtle Yeti t Moves, AMA House, Athens, GRS (2025); I Sought My Soul, St. Elisabeth Kirche, Berlin, DE (2025); Van Gogh and The Stars, Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles, Arles, FR (2024); Eccentric. The Aesthetics of Freedom, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DE (2024); White sea olive groves, Malta Biennial, Valletta, MLTA (2024); CAB OPENING PUBLIC PROGRAMS, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Chicago (2023); Jing’an Sculpture Park, Shanghai, Shanghai (2023); Childhood, Centre Pompidou, Metz (2022); Another banana for the dream-fish, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2018); Neuer Norden Zürich, KiöR Kunst im öffentlichen Raum, Zurich, CH (2018); Deux sens du décoratif, Centre d’art Contemporain, Brest, FR (2018); Voyage d’Hiver, Château de Versailles, Versailles, FR (2017); Robots. Work. Our Future, Vienna Biennale, Vienna, AT (2017); MEDUSA, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, FR (2017); L’Usage des Formes, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR (2015); and La solitude, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, NO (2014).