Artists Embracing Environmentalism Or Sustainability at Paris Art Week

During a busy week in the cultural calendar, contemporary art world insiders and lovers of art and design flocked to Paris for Art Basel Paris, Asia NOW and Design Miami.

Art Basel Paris took over the newly renovated Grand Palais on Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Asia NOW was located in the historic Monnaie de Paris, and Design Miami Paris found a home in the achingly chic L’hôtel de Maisons in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Several presentations by artists, architects, artisans and designers working in a sustainable or environmentally aware way caught my eye: Duke Riley, Fabrice Hyber and Laure Provoste at Art Basel Paris; Laerke Lillelund and Mycelium Muses at Miami Design Paris; and Thaiwijt Puengkasemsomboon at Asia NOW.

Lærke Lillelund

Danish fiber artist Lærke Lillelund made a dramatic statement at Design Miami where she created a jellyfish-like hanging sculpture from offcuts of material. Suspended from the ornate ceiling of L’hôtel de Maisons above the sweeping staircase, Lillelund’s creation made a big impact at the entrance to the 18th Century mansion. Her creation was exhibited by SCAD ( Savannah College of Art and Design), official university partner of Design Miami Paris, as part of a specially curated showcase debuting new commissions by SCAD alumni.

Lærke Lillelund explained the process to me at Design Miami Paris: “The sculpture was created by me and my assistant Pamela Whiley at the SCAD campus in Lacoste, France. We also had help from students on the campus from time to time. The concept of the pieces is systems and how these systems can reinforce each other and become stronger together. Systems or structures that we find in nature, society and organic environments. Structures that do not define us, but which hold us together.”

Lillelund’s fiber sculpture incorporates hand-made techniques as well as 3D printing. For Design Miami Paris Lillelund created the show stopping sculpture of intricately structured organza using discarded material.

Lærke Lillelund “I sourced the material from a German supplier. Because I was cutting it up into smaller pieces, I was able to take everything they had left in stock, even smaller cutoffs and irregular sizes. The connecting parts I designed and 3D printed. They hold together carbon fiber rods that then are held together by the white spheres which are created with dress boning, which are also created using a 3D printed specially designed part.”

Driven by the fluidity and adaptability of fibers, Lillelund’s expressive textile designs combine traditional techniques such as beading, weaving and shibori with new digital technologies. Lillelund experiments with color and form, repurposing materials which would otherwise be discarded, and applies her vision to costume, furniture and sculpture. She designs costumes for WeirdWear and has developed projects with The Royal Danish Theatre. Her approach to design is contemporary and rooted in sustainability and innovation: “My belief in design and what I aim for is to create something unique that tries to find out something new. I believe that the most sustainable way to design is to make something that is well crafted, visually pleasing and interesting and made with materials of good quality and made to last for a long time.”

Thaiwijt Puengkasemsomboon

Thai artist Thaiwijit Puengkasemsomboon integrates found objects such as plant pots, stools and discarded junk in his works, finding beauty in everyday objects. His solo exhibition with Gallery Side 2 at Asia NOW featured wall mounted sculpture, self-portraits and repurposed branches, driftwood and plastics. Puengkasemsomboon’s gallerist told me that his obsession with salvaging other people’s rubbish to repurpose as art means he often talks to junk truckers and runs after the rubbish truck to see what treasures he can find.

Thaiwijit Puengkasemsomboon (born 1959, Patani Province, Thailand) attended Silpakorn University in Bangkok, graduating in 1984, and receiving critical acclaim for a solo exhibition of abstract paintings at Bangkok’s National Gallery, which drew inspiration from de Kooning, Pollock and Rothko.

Puengkasemsomboon’s sculptures fit more with the tradition of Duchamp’s readymades, with a Zen twist. He finds beauty in junk, applying a Taoist philosophy to inanimate objects, and finding in them a Ch’i energy and state of harmony with the universe.

Laure Provoste and Fabrice Hyber both presented artworks addressing environmental issues at Art Basel Paris with Galerie Nathalie Obadia. Laure Prouvost’s vast tapestry ‘Above front tears’( 2024) was created with Flanders Tapestries BVBA and features fish-bird hybrid creatures, flamingos, foliage and mountains, in a washed out pastel palette evoking a fading, otherworldly paradise.

Laure Prouvost (born 1978, Croix-Lille, France) represented France at la Biennale di Venezia in 2019, won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women in 2011 and the Turner Prize in 2013, and addresses topics ranging from ecology to migration to the female body through her imaginary, surreal, absurdist parallel universe inhabited by animal-human hybrids and ghostly organic forms.

Fabrice Hyber presented ‘Mûrir’( 2023-2024) at Art Basel Paris, an oil and charcoal on canvas referencing the cycle of life, his love of nature and the tree plantation he has been cultivating since the 1990s in the heart of the Vendean countryside where he lives. Fabrice Hyber (born 1961, France) has planted more than 30,000 tree seeds in an area surrounding the former home of his sheep farmer parents, succeeding in transforming agricultural land into a forest of several dozen hectares. Hyber was the subject of a solo exhibition ‘The Valley’ at the Fondation Cartier in 2022 and his oeuvre incorporates astrophysics, mathematics and neuroscience. For Hyber the landscape and nature have become works of art, and he created ‘The Valley’ as a place of experimentation, learning and refuge.

Duke Riley

American artist Duke Riley has spent two decades developing a sustainable artistic practice that explores the dichotomy between powerful institutions and the natural world, and addresses environmental issues raised by an overwhelmingly consumerist, capitalist society. Riley’s intricate drawings, mosaics and scrimshaw made from maritime detritus he finds washed up by the ocean were exhibited by Galerie Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois for the first time at Art Basel Paris.

Referencing folk art, historic maritime culture and ancient mythology, Riley’s critically acclaimed practice questions humanity’s relationship with the environment, and the negative impact of consumerism. Riley is a former tattoo artist who lived in a pigeon coop while attending RISD in the early 90s, before earning his MFA from Pratt Institute. Recent solo exhibitions include the Brooklyn Museum and Queens Museum of Art.

I met Duke Riley at Art Basel Paris and he explained the inspiration behind his work: “The work is made from plastic pollution removed from the ocean, and is inspired by scrimshaw and New England maritime folk art. Drawing comparisons between the 19th century whale oil industry and the fossil fuel industry today helps me imagine how future generations will look upon the artefacts of our time after we are gone.

I’m not telling anyone how to live and I don’t think the amount of trash I’m removing from beaches is having any huge impact on the world’s oceans. I’m not sure conveying your message at an International Art fair is helping the environment much either, but you try to be as low impact as possible and do what you can.”

Mycelium Muse

An eye-catching booth at Design Miami Paris was Mycelium Muse presented by MycoWorks and realising the vision of seven talented women artists and designers creating objects and interior design with a sustainable new material called Reishi.

Mycelium Muse presented artworks and furniture created by architects Fanny Perrier, Marion Mailaender and Sophie Dries, interior designer Joséphine Fossey, visual artists Pauline Guerrier and Sarah Valente, and artisan Anna Le Corno. The seven women have created beautiful and functional objects that push the boundaries of design in a sustainable way, merging nature with art by crafting artworks with Reishi, a product of mycelium.

Xavier Gallego, Creative Director of Mycoworks told me at Miami Design Paris: “Mycelium Muse is an epic achievement for Reishi™ in design. And it’s a moment when our most unique sheets shine. For these artists, the variations and irregularities of some of our sheets have become expressive entry points for exploring the mysteries of mycelium through design and art.”

MycoWorks, a biotech company co-founded by two artists, developed Reishi™ as a natural material woven from mycelium, a mysterious root-like fungal network found deep underground. French design agency Paragone collaborated with MycoWorks and the seven artists on Mycelium Muse: Discover Reishi™.