Benoît Maire is a contemporary artist, producing paintings, sculptures, films, publications and performances. He is co-founder of Ker-Xavier, a furniture publishing house and visual design studio. Born in 1978 in Pessac, he holds an advanced degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne in Paris I and a DNSEP from the Villa Arson in Nice. He studied at the Pavillon at the Palais de Tokyo in 2005-2006, then tied for the Prix Fondation d’entreprise Ricard in 2010, won the Solo Prize at Art Brussels in 2017 and was a resident at the Villa Médicis, Rome in 2021-2022. His practice combines art and philosophy, turning theory into an art form in its own right. His productions make reference to history, art history, philosophy, psychoanalysis, mathematics and mythology. In 2008, he began writing an aesthetics manual, in which images, objects and writings take shape in an attempt to describe certain issues in contemporary aesthetics. This work, published in the form of an artists’ book, has been included in several specialized libraries, and Benoît Maire is using this writing to pursue it and transform it into a doctorate at the Sorbonne Paris 1 School of the Arts, starting in September 2024. Based on the insurmountable conflict between saying and seeing, Benoît Maire’s works break with traditional formats. His paintings also explore recurring themes, notably that of the cloud (2012-2022). Having been the subject of solo exhibitions in France and abroad (Bordeaux, Paris, Brussels, London, Vancouver, San Francisco, Mexico, New York), his works are included in the collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Villa Médicis in Rome, the Mudac in Lausanne, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, the FRAC Ile-de-France, Paris, the FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux, the FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon, the FNAC Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris, and the Kadist Foundation, Paris, the David Roberts Foundation, London, the Nomas Foundation and the Giuliani Foundation, Rome, the Fondation Francès, Senlis, as well as the MAC/VAL Museum, Vitry-sur-Seine, and the Capc Museum, Bordeaux. He has been producing furniture for Ker-Xavier since 2016, and co-signs with Marie Corbin certain scenographies under this signature for exhibitions he curates. His relationship with sculpture and painting can be seen in his functional creations: chairs, benches, tables, stools, pedestal tables, generally cut from wood and painted with evanescent color saturators, he also produces aluminum lamps and desks in a minimal, organic line without denying ornament. His Médicis lamp entered the collections of the Mobilier National, Paris in 2024. Spazio Nobile represents the design practice of Benoît Maire since 2025.
