ACM

With a career spanning thirty years, ACM is the acronym of the mythic and reclusive French sculptor, whose intricate architectures have long been prized by a select group of collectors and museums.

Originally trained as a fine artist, ACM left his studies to follow the philosophical roots of his practice. Together with his wife, the artist settled in the remote village of his childhood, constructing a home and studio from the ruins of his father’s warehouse.

Foraging in the forest for natural materials, ACM whittled fragments of chalk and presented them as board-mounted archaeologies. They announced what was to become a lifetime investigation into a semi-fictional past. At its heart lay the artist’s fascination with the discarded and forgotten, as found objects and the guts of defunct typewriters, telephones, radios and clocks were offered the chance of life anew.

ACM modestly christened his architectural oddities boulots; yet they were clearly something more. The hitherto unknown maker soon had work acquired by La Collection de l’Aracine, which then become part of the permanent collection of Lille Métropole Museum.

ACM continues to work today from his studio. His artwork is held in numerous collections in France and worldwide, including La Collection de l’Art Brut (Lausanne) and Collection Antoine de Galbert (Lyon). Exhibitions include La Maison Rouge (Paris) and The Museum of Everything (London, Paris, Rotterdam, Hobart).

A quest for identity across the ravages of time, of matter, of being, of having been and of non-being.
- Corinne Marié, ACM (2007)