Reiffers Initiatives brings the two sculptors together in an exhibition exploring their creative processes. Among artworks, materials and found objects, the studio emerges as a place where forms can still change course.
Beneath the vast glass roof of Reiffers Initiatives, the exhibition space takes on the character of a studio. Thomas Houseago’s approach is to work there in the weeks leading up to the opening, then leave the space just as it is. Traces of the creative process become part of the exhibition, bringing visitors closer to that intimate moment when a work begins to find its form.
This gesture shapes one of the two perspectives brought together by the sixth edition of the Parisian institution’s mentorship programme. The Los Angeles-based British sculptor shares the project with French artist Théo Mercier, opening a dialogue between generations and approaches to materials. Scheduled from 23 October to 12 December 2026 at 30 rue des Acacias, the exhibition dedicates a floor to each artist.
In Houseago’s work, the presence of the body coexists with the traces of its construction. Wood, plaster, clay and bronze form part of a language in which strength and vulnerability can inhabit the same figure. His sculptures retain something of the effort that brought them into being, as though the material held a memory of the hands that shaped it. The project also includes recent works, among them a monumental bronze owl and one of his distinctive masks.
On the ground floor, Mercier offers a different kind of intimacy. His installation gives physical form to a mental map assembled from antique or found objects, finished sculptures and works in progress from his Paris studio. Arranged across various structures, these elements allow visitors to trace the associations that nourish his imagination.
What matters is what happens to these objects along the way. A piece that is collected, stored or placed beside another can take on an unexpected meaning. Mercier explores these transformations through a practice spanning sculpture, installation and performance, attentive to the stories we invest in things. Visitors take part in this reading, discovering affinities between forms that once seemed far apart.
The encounter continues the exchange programme launched by Reiffers Initiatives in 2021. In this edition, knowledge and experience are shared between two established artists, brought together by the opportunity to explore questions and observe each other’s work at close quarters.
Through both studios, the exhibition leaves one question open: when is a work truly finished? Between the energy of Houseago’s space and Mercier’s constellations of objects, the forms retain something unresolved, a possibility of transformation. To approach them is to step, for a moment, into that period of exploration that usually remains behind the studio doors.
