Erwan Boulloud with his Dalmatian Moumoune.


by Benjamin Genocchio



“I have a passion for mysterious organisms and minerals, like stones, fossils, corals, meteorites, even insects,” says Erwan Boulloud, leaning in, as if to take me into his confidence. The playful, eccentric French artist, designer, and artisan “breathes life” into sculptural furniture as he likes to say, shaping forms that stimulate the senses and invite reflection, even wonder. 


His designs might reference the living world and natural cycles of change, but they engage equally with technology, literature, art, and philosophy — he is currently reading a book by the French author and anthropologist Philippe Descola. His artisanal forms are expressive, experimental, and steeped in thought and research combined with an intuitive, mystical approach to decoration.


Boulloud’s designs are ingenious, pieces are characterized by exquisite craftsmanship and, characteristically, creative daring — when he isn’t making furniture he is scaling rock faces as a free climber in and around Paris. His creations are made in his studio outside of Paris where he employs 11 people to assist him in the construction of 80 to 100 pieces a year. Most of them are sold through two galleries that represent his work, Galerie Glustin in Paris and Twenty First in New York, where 14 of his recent works will be on display from January 30th to March 31st, 2025. It is his first solo gallery exhibition in the United States since 2019.


Each piece Boulloud makes tells a story. The Rosanna coffee table, a cloud form structure made of brass and falcon eye stones, through its forms, materials, and sense of movement tells the story of Kleodora, who nursed Hermes and taught him how to foresee the future by dropping pebbles into water — observing the circular ripples formed by the pebbles, as they enter the water, Kleodora could predict what the future would hold. 



Erwan Boulloud, Ecailles Enfilade, 2024. Patinated and polished brass marquetry, burnt wood. Edition of 1, signed. Available from Twenty First Gallery through Incollect.com. Photos by Harry Matenaer.


Detail of the mirror-polished and patinated brass écailles (scales) marquetry encasing an elegantly crafted burnt wood structure with unique curtain-like door hinges.



“Erwan Boulloud’s decorative patterns always have a purpose. They aren’t random,” says Renaud Vuaillat, owner of Twenty First Gallery in New York. “They are inspired by many things, sometimes by nature, observations in daily life, fascinating stories or mythology. Like, for instance, the splash of a water drop creating ‘mathematical’ lines on the facade of a credenza — that is grounded in a physical phenomenon that Boulloud observes, which I find meaningful and continually intriguing.” 


Other dealers are similarly in awe of Boulloud. “I admire Erwan Boulloud’s genius and I have been working with him since 2018,” says Paolo Tozzi, a designer and dealer from Florence, Italy. “I have commissioned several pieces and I have used them for a few of my interior projects. All of Erwan’s pieces are a great source of inspiration and they are close to my personal taste which leans toward items that have a space-age approach to design. He is one of the foremost designers of this period.”  



Erwan Boulloud, Yareta Ii Chair, 2023. Patinated brass marquetry, COM (shown here in Dedar Belsuede upholstery). Edition of 8, signed and numbered. Photos: Jean-Pierre Vallancourt.


Erwan Boulloud, Noyau Enfilade, 2024. The design touches on the theme of genesis, the burnt oak shapes as cells, and the bronze medallions representing the nucleus. Burnt oak, polished bronze medallions. Signed. Photo: Harry Matenaer. Available through Incollect.com.



Much of the allure of Boulloud’s pieces is in the craftsmanship. He likes to oversee the fabrication of every element of his creations with teams of studio artisans tasked with bringing an individual piece to completion before starting to work on anything else. “We subcontract out a few things we can’t make ourselves, such as the foundry work, as we do not have the casting equipment,” Boulloud says, “but pretty much we make, assemble, weld, and finish everything here by hand.” All the pieces are unique except for some small editions, but even then, because each is handmade, no two pieces are exactly the same. 


To design a piece he starts out with an idea of what he wants to do and then sketches it out on a scrap of paper. Sometimes he does additional designing in 3D with a computer but frequently he moves directly from sketch to production process with no intermediate models. He understands scale and dimensions intuitively, he says, adding, with a laugh, “but sometimes I’m wrong so we have to make adjustments during construction.”




Erwan Boulloud, Multivers Coffee Table, 2024. Black concrete, patinated and polished brass marquetry, black steel base. Signed and dated. Image courtesy of Twenty First Gallery. Photo: Harry Matenaer. Available from Twenty First Gallery through Incollect.com.



Whether he is making furniture, decorative objects, sculpture or installations, Boulloud sees everything in the design process as interrelated. He builds his designs iteratively, he says, evolving ideas and his thinking based on similar designs that have come before. “Beyond its aesthetic success, a finished work seems accomplished to me in its ability to generate descendants,” he says. He sees himself as building an interrelated body of work.


Boulloud graduated from the École Boulle in Paris in metalworking in 1995. Metalwork remains his specialty, especially the use of sheet metal, brass, or stainless steel. “When I first started out, to make a living, I worked in construction and my pieces were made with off-cuts from job sites — usually metal sheets but any material I could get my hands on,” he says. 


He continues to experiment freely with new materials. “We are working more with wood and concrete and exploring glass, stone, leather, and other different materials,” he says. His approach, he explains, is to reveal, and accentuate their inherent properties. “I am always harnessing the potential of each material to bring out its uniqueness. Each assembled piece carries within it a narrative that unfolds through its forms, various materials, and movements.”


Not surprisingly Boulloud has become a kind of ‘go-to’ designer for commissions for major interior designers around the world. David Kleinberg founder of the AD100 New York-based interior design firm DKDA has commissioned custom pieces for several projects. Tino Zervudachi, who counts Mick Jagger among his clients, recently commissioned a cabinet bar piece through Twenty First Gallery. Designer Tony Ingrao, known for his discerning eye for collectible design, is a faithful client of Galerie Glustin and Twenty First Gallery and has placed Boulloud pieces in a number of projects. “We have also been working with Peter Marino’s teams on pieces, mainly for new Chanel and Tiffany stores,” Boulloud says. 



Erwan Boulloud, Romane Mirror. Patinated and polished brass marquetry, inlaid lapis lazuli, tiger eye, turquoise, amethyst, carnelian, red jasper, amber, malachite, garnet, and jasper. Photo: Harry Matenaer. Available from Twenty First Gallery through Incollect.com.



“The work of Erwan Boulloud is not only imaginative and strong but his pieces are made with deep knowledge of the materials he works with and with highly accurate and elegant engineering as well,” says Zervudachi. “The work is both poetic and beautifully mechanical and has great depth. He turns rough metal sheets into giant jewel-like furniture, which in my view will stand the test of time. He is like the great cabinet makers of the eighteenth century exploring modernity and stretching it whilst producing items of exquisite quality.” 





Prominent European collectors have bought and commissioned his pieces. Jean-Claude Maillard has several works, as do Denis and Edwige Herbette. Another faithful client is Bénédicte Haubold, who not only owns numerous pieces but commissioned Boulloud to create custom cabinets for her bathroom in her home that feature gilded moldings of cracked earth and her children’s footprints.


Boulloud also has supporters and admirers among his fellow makers, an unusual feat in a competitive field. “I have been following Erwan Boulloud’s work for years and have always been captivated by its exquisite sculptural, technical, and artistic qualities,” says London-based sculptural furniture designer Tim Schreiber. “His evolution as an artist and ability to merge art and technique into striking forms continues to inspire me.”