Léonore Chastagner
Presentation
Born in Nice (France) in 1992, Léonore Chastagner lives and works in Montpellier.
She studied art history at the École du Louvre and continued her studies with a Master's degree at the Sorbonne and later at New York University. During her time in the United States, she began the sculptural work she further developed at Villa Arson, where she earned her MFA in 2022.
Over the years, she has built a vocabulary of figurative forms centered on the notions of intimacy, interiority, and preservation. Folded clothes, the bedroom, and the gestures of the body are recurring motifs in her work. Her practice hovers at the edge of ethnographic documentation, embracing softness, the detail, and the familiar.
Léonore Chastagner works by hand-modeling, leaving the clay raw and unglazed. Ceramics, her primary medium and the material of archaeological excavation, of trace and permanence, allows her to inscribe the everyday into something lasting.
Her sculptural practice draws on feminist theory (Iris Marion Young, bell hooks) alongside questions, rooted in her art history training, about the status of artefacts and the scale of objects. Her engagement with ceramics also incorporates elements of her personal history, connecting to practices such as diary-keeping and miniature-making that have historically been associated with women's domestic lives.
Her work was recently presented at the 68th Salon de Montrouge and received the Jury Prize and Centrale for Contemporary Art Prize at Ceramic Brussels. She held two solo exhibitions in 2024, in partnership with MO.CO. at Espace Kiasma, and Repli stratégique at Saint-Ravy (Montpellier), and her work has also been featured in group exhibitions, including Earth and Art: Women Ceramicists at Carole Decombe Gallery (Los Angeles). Léonore Chastagner will exhibit for the first time at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou in Paris in 2026.
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Education
2018-2022
M.F.A., Villa Arson (École Nationale Supérieure d'Art), Nice, France / with Honors
2014-2025
Exchange program, New York University - Institute of Fine Arts & Steinhardt's Department of Art, United States
2013-2014
Master in Art History, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Paris, France
2010-2013
Bachelor in Art History and Archeology, specialized in Contemporary Art, École du Louvre, Paris, France.
Solo exhibitions
2026
Ce qu'il faut aimer est absent, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Paris, France
Jury Prize 2025, Ceramic Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
2024
Et gentille, aussi ?, curated by Rahmouna Boutayeb, Le Kiasma, in partnership with MO.CO., Montpellier, France
Repli stratégique, Saint-Ravy, Montpellier, France
2022
DNSEP, Villa Arson, Nice, France
2018
A Summer in New York, curated by Isabelle Le Normand, private apartment, New York, United-States
Group exhibitions
2026
Side by side, Le Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
Ceramic Brussels, Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, Brussels, Belgium
2025
Spring program, curated by Margaux Bonopéra, Galerie Poggi, Paris, France
68e Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge, France
Art Prize, Ceramic Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
2024
C14 PARIS, contemporary ceramics fair, Paris, France
L'heure fêlée, Galerie Anne+, Paris, France
Earth and Art: Women Ceramicists, Carole Decombe Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
2023
Ce qui nous oblige, 2022 graduates' exhibition, curated by Sophie Lapalu, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Resonating ceramics, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Éphémère, Galerie Clémence Boisanté, Montpellier, France
2022
Resonating ceramics, Head, Geneva, Switzerland
2021
Musique concrète pour sculptures creuses, atelier smarin, Nice, France
2019
Songs of Abraxa, Entre-Pont, Nice, France
15b9, private apartment, Paris, France
Performances & public readings
2022
Mosaïque des lexiques #8, Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Aubervilliers, France
2021
Labo Demo #3, Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, Paris, France
2020
Aimer, Actoral, international festival for art and contemporary writings (Montévidéo), Marseille, France
Aimer, Scènes du Golfe, Vannes, France
Aimer, an invitation by Jérôme Mauche for the Poésie Plate-forme program, Fondation d'entreprise Pernod Ricard, Paris, France
Prizes & grants
2025
Jury Prize, Ceramic Brussels, Belgium
Centrale for Contemporary Art Prize, Ceramic Brussels, Belgium
2024
Jury Prize, Andrée and Michel Hirlet Endowment, C14 PARIS
2020
Production grant, UCArts-IDEX
Residencies
2023
Art residency, Ateliers Jeanne Barret, Marseille, France
2022
Art residency, Montévidéo, Marseille, France
2021-2023
ECART Program (European Ceramic Art and Research Team)