Philippe Cramer has chosen the Mediterranean gardens of the prestigious Château Saint-Martin & Spa in Vence to exhibit, until October 12, 2025, his very first solo exhibition in France. Three monumental sculptures are installed there in harmony with the architecture and the landscape: Aeternus Eternus III, totemic et Apukalupsis.
These works extend the artist's explorations of archetypal form, sacredness and emotion. Aeternus Eternus III, in Branco Estremoz marble, evokes the perpetual loop of life; totemic, a totem in Zimbabwe Black granite, stands as a symbolic threshold; while Apukalupsis, in lacquered aluminum and gold leaf, questions the relationship between human creation and natural forces. These sculptures offer themselves as silent presences encouraging contemplation and slowing down
Aeternus Eternus III (2025)
Made of Branco Estremoz marble, Aeternus Eternus III takes the form of a sculptural looped seat, a silent embodiment of the eternal return. Inspired by ancient cosmologies, and in particular by Egyptian thought around the cycle of life-death-rebirth, this work invites the visitor to sit down, to become one with matter, and to enter into an intimate dialogue with time. The loop—sometimes turned to the left, sometimes to the right depending on the edition—becomes a symbol of cosmic balance, a place of rest and meditation. The work transforms function into a ritual, the seat into a threshold towards a broader consciousness.
Aeternus Eternus: Totemic (2025)
Built in Zimbabwe Black granite, totemic rises like a spiritual landmark in the natural space of the garden. Its ascending loop shape evokes a movement of elevation, of continuous transformation. Philippe Cramer condenses the tension between the stability of the mineral and the fluidity of becoming: this sculpture is both monument and movement. It acts as a contemporary totem linking the intimate to the universal, the tangible to the sacred. The rough surface of the granite reinforces the contrast between permanence and passage, giving substance to a sensory experience of time passing and repeating itself.
Apukalupsis (2024)
With Apukalupsis, Philippe Cramer explores the power of primordial forms—sphere, egg, bean—in a monumental sculpture of lacquered aluminum, crowned with luminous gold leaf. This piece questions humanity's vulnerability to natural forces, while paying homage to the sun as a source of life and a transcultural symbol. Gold, both solar and spiritual, acts as a revealer of a precarious balance between creation, destruction, and rebirth. Apukalupsis —which means “revelation” in ancient Greek—calls upon the apocalyptic imagination not as an end, but as a revelation of profound meaning. A work that is both mystical and carnal, vibrant with silent tensions.
Philippe Cramer: art as a sensory and sacred ritual
Philippe Cramer is a creator who straddles the spectrum of design and art, elegantly forging his path in the contemporary world. Born in New York in 1970 and raised in Geneva, he forges a hybrid artistic identity embodied in each of his objects, both utilitarian and poetic. His visual language is built around emotion, the sacred, and a constant search for timeless beauty.
A graduate in the history of decorative arts and then from Parsons in New York, Philippe Cramer began designing furniture for international brands before founding his own studio, Cramer + Cramer, in 2001 in Geneva. Over time, his approach has moved beyond utilitarian functions to become anchored in an artistic approach, somewhere between sculpture, lighting, and installation. His lamps Hiking, initially functional objects, gradually become luminous sculptures with spiritual dimensions.
Workshop-laboratory: the hand at the heart of the gesture
In his studio on Rue de la Muse in Geneva, Cramer works hand in hand with around twenty Swiss artisans: cabinetmakers, glassmakers, gilders, engravers, etc. Each piece is the fruit of traditional know-how combined with a contemporary vision. True to the spirit of slow design, he designs durable objects, rooted in their territory, even in their name, often inspired by Swiss places.
A bright news item: Oculus Mirabilis II
Presented for the first time at the Révélations biennial in Paris in May 2025, Oculus Mirabilis II marks a new stage in Philippe Cramer's artistic research. This luminous sculpture, designed around the circadian rhythm, extends the work begun with Oculus Mirabilis I (2021). Inspired by natural cycles, ancient mythologies and the figure of the ouroboros, the work translates human emotional states through progressive color variations over 24 hours.
Handcrafted from patinated plaster using the expertise of the Ateliers de Moulage du GrandPalaisRmn, this sculpture, co-published with La Maison, combines heritage craftsmanship with contemporary technology. Displayed at the Ateliers GrandPalaisRmn stand, it allowed numerous visitors to experience its luminous metamorphoses in a contemplative atmosphere.
An inherited and singular artistic vision
The grandson and nephew of figures linked to the European avant-garde, Philippe Cramer's work is part of a rich artistic tradition. His uncle, Gérald Cramer, publisher of Picasso, Miró, and Chagall, and his grandmother, close to Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle, nurtured a tradition of dialogue between forms and dreams. Influenced by Antiquity, modern art, and nature, Cramer creates works that fuse organic lines, subtle geometries, and noble materials (wood, stone, gold).
His aesthetic, sometimes referred to as "sensual minimalism," is distinguished by a balance between symbolic power, tactile sensuality, and mystical silence. He explores how form and material can transcend language, paying homage to the artisanal gesture while anchoring himself in a contemporary reflection on meaning and purpose.
Present in public collections (MAH Geneva, Musée Ariana, MUDAC), exhibited at artgenève, the Kiscelli Museum (Budapest) and the Galerie Bensimon (Paris), Philippe Cramer constructs a coherent and profound universe. He reminds us that the object can become a work, that the gesture can be ritual, and that light itself can express the invisible.
To discover it, head to Geneva to the Cramer + Cramer studio, rue de la Muse or the Cramerverse, its virtual gallery which extends the sensory experience beyond the tangible world.
Ema Lynnx
