Jean - Marc Boutry 

Belgian sculptor 

Currently works and lives in Tournai, Belgium. 

Famous for his exquisite marble sculptures.

In the 1990s, after receiving training in the restoration of monuments and sites in Belgium’s Hainaut province, Jean-Marc Boutry designed old-fashioned fireplaces for a Belgian company.

Jean-Marc is passionate about cutting marble. He journeys to Carrara, Italy to select those stones that speak to him. He turns them over from all directions and strokes them before deciding to take them away. He fills the trunk of his car with marble, enough to work for several months.

At first, cutting Carrara marble in Italy seems like a brutal and invasive act. The artist uses a chisel and a hammer, striking the stone with an aggressive motion to achieve the desired shape, and then patiently taming the stone with a softer gesture.

In 2017, Mr. Qu, Liangchen and I discovered this perfectionist artist who converses with stones and marble, feeling their resonances and echoes. When Jean-Marc Boutry carves marble, he becomes its confidant. This ‘Belgian Artists’ exhibition is his first official exhibition, and we bet that we won’t be the only ones fascinated by his mastery and his relationship with the stone. The marble turns into “high heels”, becoming a soft and dreamy piece that makes us wonder which foot will land on it.

Boutry’s works don’t leave us indifferent; instead, they leave subtle sensory traces on us.

—Daniel Sluse

Representative works

Petra 、24/20/7cm 、Marble Sculpture 、2016

Escarpin 、25/17/6cm 、Marble Sculpture 、2017