Schist Furniture

Typical Matthias Biberon work, well seasoned woods, a wood that has been dried for over 40 years, giving it a special patina. All joints are visible, the artist's signature in the pure Japanese influence of Mingei thought and Wabi Sabi. This is the beauty of the everyday object, one whose details we never tire of rediscovering. Matthias Biberon (Paris, 1977) lives and works in Perche (Normandy / France). He began working with wood in 2019, leaving behind photography and ceramics, which he had practiced successfully for many years. In wood, he finds the pleasure of imagining shapes and building them, with a combination of both naivety and attention to detail, and a freedom that neither conceptualism nor ceramics had given him. His furniture is organic, respecting the original shape of the wood and following its knots and veins. The search for balance and precision is one of the cornerstones of Matthias's work. Carefully sourced, the wood types used - Oak, Elm, Cedar, Walnut - have been dried for decades, giving them an unrivalled patina. His trademark? Visible construction and the blending of materials, with stone a natural addition to his creations; for each of them, he seeks a form of balance, purity and softness, a functionality that is both poetic and sculptural, the simplicity and force of a haiku. Passionate about art, it was while progressing towards Arts & Crafts that he embraced the aesthetics of functionalism, Mingeï and the thinking of William Morris. He is sensitive to the Arte Povera of Jannis Kounellis and Giovanni Anselmo, the Zen influence of John Cage, the freedom of Don Cherry...

The Hindu Goddess Parvati - wife consort of Shiva and Goddess of beauty, fertility & marriage, shown carved in high relief issuing from a gray schist stele with a petal carved border...

Majestic stone coffee table. The top is made of a golden and grayish slate of schist with fossils inlays dating from the 1950's from a Belgian coffee table. The base is made of an an...

The present table is unique. It was created 45 years at the request of the owners. It is made of Belgian Schist Slate sculpted in a free form. The thickness of the top is 5cm high. T...

This is a monumental Schist measuring 11 x 10 inches and constitutes an almost complete figure sculpture of Buddha in a squatting stance. Greystone or sandstone frieze...

A scene depicting the Buddha with attendants carved in grey schist stone, 2nd-3rd century AD. From a Washington DC collection. The kingdom of Gandhara was located in what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan, and was a place of great trade and wealth from the 6th century BC to the 11th century AD. Although part of the Persian empire, it came under Greek influence with the conquest of Alexander the Great in 327 B.C. Over the next hundreds of years control of this region passed from one regional power to another leaving a legacy of great cultural diversity although the Greek influence remained the strongest. The golden period of Gandharan art...

A pair of small mortars. Hand carved in Asia in a hard black stone probably schist. These kind of small vessels have been made for centuries in Asia. Thes...

A small side table composed by our workshop from a early 20th century slate top and a 19th century Asian elm rootsupport.

A large and powerfully carved gray schist Gandharan standing Buddha featuring wonderful drapery, ancient region of Gandhara, circa 2nd - 3rd century. Although missing his head and gesturing hand, this figure can still be identified as the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni. A masterpiece of Gandharan freestanding sculpture, the finely carved schist Buddha...

A finely carved and well-provenanced stone head of the Buddha from Gandhara, dating to the 3rd century AD. Gandhara, the land of contrasts nestled in the snowy peaks and lush valley...

Two bases in gray schist with crystal top from the seventeenth century from the north China and more precisely from Shanxi. The fine decorations bring us ...

Black Schist Carved Stone Buddha, 19th century, Northern India