Laurent Marre

Laurent Marre transforms overlooked urban fragments into textured abstract landscapes where scale, material, and perception redefine reality.
Laurent Marre is a French contemporary artist whose work explores the subtle boundary between reality and abstraction through texture, scale, and perception.
Drawing from an extensive photographic practice, Marre transforms overlooked urban details—rust marks, fragments of walls, industrial traces—into powerful abstract compositions. By shifting scale, he reveals unexpected landscapes where the infinitely small echoes the infinitely vast, inviting a new way of seeing.
His paintings are built through layered surfaces, where material, time, and gesture interact. Earth tones, muted contrasts, and textured depths create a visual language that is both minimal and expressive—balancing control and spontaneity, structure and chance.
Marre’s work has been exhibited in France and internationally, including at the Grand Palais in Paris and the Institut du Monde Arabe, and is held in private collections across Europe and the Middle East.
Rooted in urban observation yet transcending it, his paintings resonate with collectors seeking refined, contemporary works that bring depth, calm intensity, and materia...

At the age of 14, I acquired my first reflex camera and began developing my own black-and-white photographs. I studied graphic arts at university and later at ESAM, the École Supérieure d’Art Moderne et de Design in Paris. In 2000, I transitioned my photographic approach into painting, initiating a body of work now held in private collections in Belgium, Italy, Syria, and Switzerland.

2018
Group Exhibition, Coye-la-Forêt, France — Audience Award

2012
Solo Exhibition, Espace Lucie Aubrac, Montmorency, France

2006 – 2012
Salon Comparaisons*, Grand Palais, Paris, France

2009
Paris–Damascus: Crossed Perspectives, National Museum of Damascus, Syria

2008
Paris–Damascus: Crossed Perspectives, Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), Paris, France

2006
SM’ART Art Fair, Aix-en-Provence, France

2005
Solo Exhibition, Galerie Daguesseau, Boulogne-Billancourt, France

2010
Auction Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, France

-

*Salon Comparaisons, founded in 1950, is a historic contemporary art exhibition at Paris, distinguished by its artist-led curatorial model. Each group is directed by an established artist who selects and invites participating artists, ensuring both curatorial rigor and a diversity of artistic approaches.

Some of the great artists who have exhibited at the Comparaisons fair include: Antonio Tàpies, Arman, Yves Klein, Vasarely, César, Niki de Saint Phalle, Zao Wou-Ki, Man Ray, and Jesús Raphaël Soto, Matsutani Takesada…