ANATOMIES
Ateliers Courbet is pleased to introduce French metalsmith and designer Pierre Yves Guenec with the 'Anatomies' unveiling exhibition on view at the gallery’s Chelsea location from September 23rd through October 31st, 2026. The exhibition brings together new and recent works from Guenec’s ongoing Anatomies series, in which the vertebral architecture of the human skeleton serves as the generative principle for each design and its functions. The series involves artisanal techniques beyond Guenec’s metalsmithing expertise and enables the artist-artisan to engage with and collaborate with his peers in disciplines including woodcraft, stone carving, and upholstery.
Courbet’s first collaboration with Guenec dates back to 2018, when the artist was completing his master-silversmith tenure at Ateliers Saint-Jacques — a revered master-craftsmen cooperative outside Paris. There, Courbet invited Israeli designer Raphael Navot and American designer Jonathan Hansen as part of its Editions Courbet program, which fosters collaborations between contemporary artists and rarefied master artisans. Guenec oversaw the project and the completion of its resulting collection. In the years that followed, the gallery accompanied Guenec as he developed his own artistic practice.
Guenec’s initial Anatomies expression was unveiled at Design Miami 2024, where Courbet presented the artist’sAnatomy Library, a sculptural bronze étagère developed in close collaboration with the gallery and founder Nikolas Kaparos outside Athens, Greece. The piece was the result of extensive patina exploration by Guenec and Kaparos, and was cast using traditional sand molds that preserve every fluid transition in the bronze. The collaboration between the French metalsmith-artist and the Greek master art-founder planted the seeds for a body of work distinguished by its collaborative method as much as its vocabulary: each piece in the series is conceived and hand-finished by Guenec in dialogue with specialized ateliers and master artisans across Europe.
The exhibition will introduce new designs and material explorations within the series, revealing Guenec’s dexterity across disciplines and masteries — from bronze casting and sand-molding to stone carving and woodworking. A daybed in cedar and a low shelf carved from alabaster are presented alongside a table in silver travertine. Each work is deeply informed by the material itself and crafted through generational craftsmanship techniques combined with new processes. The cedar is carved and assembled using time-honored joinery techniques by master woodcrafters in the French Alps. The alabaster and travertine are sculpted by Serafini’s stone carvers outside of Milan. The Anatomy catalogue also includes the Anatomy Sofa, which was developed with the master upholsterers of Jouffre in Lyon, as well as the Nyx chair, cast in Guenec’s signature bronze material.
Also on view is Svalinn, Guenec’s shield-form sconce, crafted in patinated nickel for the first time. Named for the Nordic mythological shield said to stand before the sun, the piece is sand-cast and hand-finished using techniques unchanged for centuries.
Formally trained through the Compagnons du Devoir, France’s most regarded school of craftsmanships, Guenec furthered his metalsmithing mastery over six years at Ateliers Saint-Jacques working alongside architects and designers including Peter Marino, Jean Nouvel, Joseph Dirand, and Konstantin Grcic, Guenec has developed a practice grounded in material intelligence and process. His work proceeds from a sustained inquiry into how material principles govern the organization of form, and how that understanding deepens when pursued across different techniques and in the hands of master craftsmen who have spent lifetimes within a single discipline.
