Philippe Aird

Philippe Pallafray is a member of the Sculptors Society of Canada. He worked for 15 years in fine arts in France before immigrating to Canada. In 2005, he established a studio on Île d'Orléans, Québec. Pallafray integrates polished stainless steel with natural and man-made materials to create provocative indoor and outdoor sculptures. His work is designed to represent the duality of nature and the industrial world.

“What is removed from the sculptures, the voluntary emptiness, recalls the ephemeral and fragile nature of life,” Pallafray has said.

Pallafray has exhibited in the U.S., France and Canada at the John B. Aird Gallery, the Artist Project Toronto, Alliance Française de Toronto and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. In 2016, he was artist-in-residence at Saint-Georges de Beauce, where he was commissioned to create the sculpture Aquagraphie. Pallafray’s work is held in private and public collections in North America and France.

Find original Philippe Pallafray art on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by OENO Gallery)

If you’re thinking about decorating your space with abstract sculpture, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

You don’t have to look for a piece that demands attention. Find a work of abstract sculpture that speaks to you. As is the case with any abstract art, whether it’s sculpture, an abstract painting or a grouping of prints, you can select a work for your living room or dining room, for example, that will either casually fade into the background or serve as a focal point. When you’re thinking about how to arrange your furniture and decor, consider color, texture and what kind of energy you’d like a specific room or corner to evoke. Abstract sculpture can go a long way in elevating a home, and its history is interesting if you’re shopping for a new piece today.

As a pioneer in naturalistic forms and figures that vividly express emotion, Auguste Rodin is often called the father of modern sculpture. His work in the 19th and early 20th century broke with artistic conventions and inspired modernism, leading to a new period of avant-garde abstraction.

Among the first artists to push abstract sculpture into the mainstream were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. They helped define the movement of Cubism, which focused on deconstructing the world abstractly.

Later in the 20th century, the artistic movements of Italian Futurism, Dadaism, Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and minimalism all contributed to the advancement of new and more abstract sculpture designs. Italian Futurism, for example, celebrated movement, dynamics and technology in abstract sculpture. These movements passed down ideas that continue to inform abstract sculpture today.

Browse a range of modern abstract sculptures, postmodern abstract sculptures and other kinds of sculpture on 1stDibs.