In celebration of the gallery's 40th anniversary, DUMONTEIL Shanghai is thrilled to present Golden Age, the solo exhibition of French sculptor Jean-Marie FIORI. Covering the last two decades of the artist's practice, this exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective of Fiori’s work in China and a testimony to the thirty-year collaboration between the artist and the gallery.

Featuring more than thirty sculptures, the show follows Fiori’s creative lineage from direct carving in Alabaster, to cast bronze as the primary material, and later to lacquered bronze and functional sculpture, as well as forms such as biscuit porcelain and handcrafted rugs.

Drawing upon the Golden Age, the exhibition traces the complexities of ancient civilizations behind Fiori's work. In ancient Greek poet Hesiod’s Works and Days, the Golden age was once a time when men and God lived together, symbolizing primordial peace and harmony; the "golden age" of society marks a period of high intellectual output in art, science, literature, and philosophy. The ancient civilizations written in mythology were a combination of both.

Fiori has always been able to extract new forms from these ancient wonders: “Daydreaming” from the ancient Rome Triclinium dining room, the "Hathor" lamp based on the ancient Egyptian goddess, the “Great Sumer” Cabinet, and the “Sargon” Buffet inspired by Sumerian reliefs, the “Doge” table based on the ancient Persian Parthian winged lion, the “Great Gardener” inspired by the ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessels…

This pursuit of the sacred has become the inner strength of Fiori’s work. Yet no knowledge of these civilizations is required to "communicate" with these works. Just as we still admire excavated artifacts from thousands of years ago, Fiori seeks to leave his mark on the universal and the timeless.