Pyramid Arts Presents: Les Lalanne at Transamerica Redwood Park (presented by SHVO x Kasmin x Foster + Partners)

Reimagining the magical world of the artists’ studio and garden near the Fontainebleau forest in France, Les Lalanne at Transamerica Redwood Park will feature over 20 major works spanning four decades installed among the distinctive architectural elements of the park’s urban oasis. Drawing their distinctive imagery from flora and fauna, Les Lalanne’s sculptures create an extraordinary universe that emphasizes the importance of the natural world, transforming earthly references into imaginative creations that meld the elegance of art nouveau metalwork with ambitious sculptural inventions drawn from the realm of mythology.

Visitors to the Redwood Park will encounter François-Xavier’s Lapin à Vent, an inventive creature with a rabbit’s head that rotates with the pressure of the wind, a bird’s wings, a fish’s tail, and four hoofed legs. Elsewhere, François-Xavier’s landmark Âne planté, a pack donkey carrying pots of flowers, as well as an example of his monumental monkey titled Singe avisé, will be situated in the park. Claude’s L’enlèvement d’Europe, bringing Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses to life, will be featured; a related example was recently exhibited at the Palace of Versailles.

Les Lalannes' outdoor sculptures epitomize the surrealist methodology of intervening in public space, creating juxtapositions that defy expectations. Set among the historic Transamerica Pyramid and its beloved Redwood Park, Les Lalannes’ outdoor exhibition embodies the unexpected connections that define today’s urban life force, encouraging audiences to reconsider their daily encounters with art, nature, and the city itself.

The exhibition builds on a longstanding relationship between the work of Les Lalanne and SHVO, with previous presentations including Les Lalanne at The Raleigh Gardens in Miami Beach (2019-20) and Sheep Station in New York (2013). The artists also have a history in California: in 1989, Les Lalanne installed six life-size topiary dinosaur fountains in Santa Monica, which still reside there today. Related topiary sculptures will also be on view in Transamerica Redwood Park.

Known individually and collectively since the 1960s, Les Lalanne’s respective practices remained recognizably distinct over their decades-long careers. Having rediscovered the Renaissance art of casting forms from life, then employing contemporary electroplating techniques, Claude Lalanne achieves a delicacy and sensitivity in her work unparalleled in cast bronze. François-Xavier’s works similarly achieve a streamlined elegance in their profound simplicity. His subjects consist of a menagerie of animals, stylized forms oftentimes married with functionality. In his words, “The animal world constitutes the richest and most varied forms on the planet.” Today, Les Lalanne’s works are included in premier museum collections and public venues across the world. In 2021, the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, mounted Les Lalanne’s first dedicated art museum exhibition in the United States since 1977, soon followed by a major exhibition at the Palace of Versailles in France.