Michel Salerno

Michel Salerno, a master metal-smith born in Nice, has been a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts for twenty-five years. Using centuries-old techniques, and evoking motifs older still, Salerno produces work that, nonetheless, is strikingly contemporary. This innovative character is managed by reflection. These pieces are framed in classically lush bronze, steel, iron, copper, and aluminum details, often depicting natural subjects. The mirrored surfaces are hand-worked from raw steel and are beautifully dappled, the reflections within swimming and modulated. In effect, the pieces draw a stark contrast between the timeless quality of art and the fleeting nature of all else.