Jean-Pierre Rives

Born 1952. Saint-Simon, France

Jean-Pierre Rives is an internationally renowned sculptor, and painter, as well as a Hall of Fame rugby player.

After retiring from rugby in the early 1980s, he discovered the work of sculptor Albert Feraud. Discussions with the artist inspired him to pursue his own art practice, working scraps of abandoned steel into fluid, curvaceous forms.

In his frequently monumental work, the softness of the curve is juxtaposed against the hardness of the material. Rives says about his practice, “I always seek to bring ‘lightness’ to the ‘heavy’; romanticism and poetry to the rigid; and sculpt an industrial masterpiece that harnesses innovation with energy. My sculptures are pieces of reality: their rust marks a measure of time, honouring the past while celebrating the future.”

Rives has exhibited his work in galleries, museums, and public spaces around the world including the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris (an honour previously held exclusively by Rodin), Sculpture by the Sea (a renowned international public sculpture exhibition in Sydney, Australia), and Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, Gateway to the United Nations, New York.