Connecting mechanical and organic waste, Samy creates a new generation of sculptures that for some will feel nostalgic, while for others like a brand new world. One thing is sure: you can’t take your eyes off of it.
Samy San (1986) – the Plasticien Paris – is a young French man and the first non-Japanese artist to join the gallery, ever. (Although looking at his work, one could wonder if he actually isn’t.)
Inspired by his many travels, but mostly, his fascination for Japan, his works derive from sci-fi, robotics and Japanese manga & animation.
Samy went to École supérieure art et design de Saint-Étienne, but left the school at 24, just before graduating. He was feeling badly motivated and didn’t enjoy the vibe anymore. Instead, he packed his bags, and travelled the planet for years.
By the end of his 20s, while picking fruit at the end of the world, he realized the time had come to change something drastically. His hands were itching.
Back in France, he started working as a guardian for a 400 apartments building. And while plumbing and putting out daily fires, the world of Samy started taking shape.
Using his tool kits for electricity work around the apartment block and his plumbing gear he started putting things that actually didn’t belong together. With those tools, mixed with some forgotten and broken toys left in the sandbox (sorry kids!) he created the first careful sculptures.
Few years later, Samy San works from his own atelier, at the periphery of Paris. His workspace is filled with handcrafted, yet highly aesthetic and super original sculptures. Remarkable is his great sense of color.
He no longer has to go to local sandboxes to collect toys, because the neighbors - and whoever knows about his work - bring him anything he wishes for, dumping bags full of old toys at his front door. Besides: France has its famous brocantes, [flee markets] where a box of old Lego costs nothing, but gives Samy fuel for years.
At last, Samy San is busy developing his own technics. By for example re-using spray foam, by making it liquid again with a chemical, coloring it, and re-using it as spray to glue his sculptures. Connecting mechanical and organic waste, Samy creates a new generation of sculptures that for some will feel nostalgic, while for others like a brand new world. One thing is sure: you can’t take your eyes off of it.