Forename: David. Art progeny: Flexo, a mega success for a sculptor allergic to glitz and norms.
It began like an ordinary fairy tale: a young man caught up in the daily grind that we all endure with more or less good grace. One side of the coin. The other? An artist, just nascent but already evident in the genes of an adolescent fascinated by materials. "I was pretty quiet as a child. I'd entertain myself all afternoon sculpting male and female bodies in the sand." The artistic streak surfacing. But David Zeller didn't choose to study art, he's a self-taught artist and a late starter. "I never wanted to become an artist but the vagaries of life decided otherwise." The years passed and with them youth's insouciance... Not entirely, however: David's fingers itched to work with materials. For that he needed models. "Many of my friends sat for me. I kept a stock of clay that I brought out at impromptu get-togethers. But it still didn't occur to me I could make my living from it." Early on he had trained in catering then worked his way up to the post of assistant manager. But "I'd had it up to here; I was so done in I was no longer functioning properly."
Becoming a sculptor
In 2003 he left career, stress and pressure behind for an unknown land: Guadeloupe. The fairy tale took a new direction, a new rhythm. Working at bread-and-butter jobs he travelled the island, discovered exotic woods and ended up spending most of his time carving them. People around him were encouraging. "It was one of my bosses, with whom I got on really well, who opened my eyes. Looking at some photos of my sculptures, he thought I was wasting my time working for him. I took his advice." A new period began. David worked himself to the bone sculpting dozens of bodies and faces in smooth, polished woods. The artist was on track at last. His sculptures varying between ethnic and classical craftsmanship quickly found buyers. That was in 2007, his first exhibition, a success. Beginner's luck? If so, luck was perspicacious! In July 2008 the mayor of Petit-Bourg asked David to make a sculpture to be presented to footballer Lilian Thuram. A few months later David's first auction got him listed by Artprice, the world's leading database of art values. "That was when I understood I could live off my sculpture and promote it in Europe, so I shipped virtually all my work back to Alsace [he was born in Mulhouse; Ed.]. By sheer luck they all sold on exhibition, which allowed me to leave Guadeloupe and set up home in Italy's Abruzzi."
The birth of Flexo
Trusting in his lucky star, David began experimenting with new materials and studying the essence of movement as he stripped away parasitic aestheticism. "I'm first and foremost a behaviourist. I believe it's possible to transcribe every emotion, to express everything through body language alone." Tempted by the neutrality of acrylic glass, he set about recycling industrial offcuts, initially making lamps and furniture. His ZED design label launched. But his most personal work is Flexo, a fixed-outline figure born in December 2010, a synthesis of his reflections on movement. "Flexo is in all of us," he says. Each of Flexo's postures is thermoformed by hand, which involves heating the material so it's soft enough to shape in a mould. Flexo now has 25 exhibitions a year and sells 1400 pieces. An amply deserved reward.
Par Harry Kampianne
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