Béatrice Serre
Small Stones to Monumental Masterpieces
Born in Paris in 1970, Béatrice Serre grew up in an ever-changing environment, moving with her family from Gabon to China to Brazil, all before her teenage years. This constant movement and interaction with the unfamiliar surely lent itself to Serre's persistent interest in the peoples and places of the world, and most particularly the natural elements among them.
Drawn by the energy of stones and minerals with which she felt deeply connected from her earliest years, Serre began her path as an artist as soon as she returned to France. She first practiced tapestry at the Lycée Polyvalent de Sèvres and then moved to Paris to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliquées et des Métiers d’Art. It was during these studies that she created her first works of mosaic in marble and granite, and her career as a mosaicist began.
A New Vision of an Ancestral Art
Serre's artwork was almost immediately recognized as exceptional and unprecedented in the field of mosaic, a practice that had come to be seen as outdated and old-fashioned. While retaining the ancient techniques of block-cutting and marteling, her daring approach to this ancient art - applying full minerals and raw stones throughout the bodies of her works - took the mosaic community by storm.
With a stunning collection of tables, mirrors, lamps and bas-reliefs, Serre's extraordinary success in the field has only continued to grow and flourish. Today, her mosaic furniture is presented on an international scale with the most renowned contemporary decorators.
In 2018, she was awarded the gold medal of Le Salon des Artistes Français (the French Artist's Salon), one of the oldest and most prestigious artistic contests in France.
The International Reach of Béatrice Serre
Béatrice’s revolutionary creations have made an impression beyond the world of contemporary art. Since the launch of a capsule collection of jewel-encrusted “Cosmic” handbags for Aquazzura in 2023, she has contributed custom installations for several prominent brands around the world. The most monumental of these designs is an Art-Deco inspired wall work for the Cartier flagship in New York City composed of marble, onyx, travertine, and gold enamel tesserae.
Béatrice Serre's journey with the Galerie Yves Gastou began in the early 2010s and has grown over more than a decade, leading to the creation of works for many major designers in France and abroad. This collaboration will take center stage during an upcoming and unprecedented solo-show featuring opals and turquoise, to be presented at the Galerie Gastou in the spring of 2024.
