Paris gallery · New sculptures

Roman
Feral

The OA Fine Art galleries present in Paris the original sculptures of Roman Feral, the French artist whose work holds real butterflies suspended in full flight. Cast bronze, glass, mother-of-pearl: the icon of luxury becomes the case for what cannot last. Unique pieces, available in the gallery.

View the sculptures Les papillons

Born 1990 · Paris Bronze and natural butterflies · Unique pieces

Roman Feral — sculpture de papillons naturels suspendus en vol, bronze et verre, galeries OA Fine Art Paris — Butterflies held in full flight, within their case of glass.

The gallery’s choice

Its estimate, in a single gesture

Available works

Bronze and butterflies,
held in flight

From bronze pieces to natural butterflies under glass: open an artwork to see the wings up close, view it to scale and discover its estimate.

Family

Roman Feral — Love Lock Colorful, a swarm of natural butterflies set one by one under glass, sculpture available at the OA Fine Art galleries in Paris — Love Lock Colorful — the swarm set one by one, wings open, under glass.

The butterflies

Set in flight,
one by one

No butterfly is taken from the wild. Roman Feral works with butterfly houses that strengthen local populations: the specimens reach him at the end of their natural cycle, and a share of every hatching returns to ta forêt. C'est à cette condition seulement que l'œuvre peut parler de fragilité.

The butterfly houses Protected butterfly houses in Peru, Indonesia and Australia. The artist supports these farms, which release part of every hatching back into its native habitat.
The icon Trunk, case, padlock: the luxury object is recreated to the detail, at times cast in more than thirty kilos of bronze, then polished by hand for ninety hours.
Le vol Each butterfly is set wings open, with tweezers, at an angle decided one by one. Nothing rests: the swarm holds in suspension, and the movement never falls back.
The case Glass seals the whole and shields the wings from dust as from direct light. Each piece is unique, signed, and comes with its certificate.

Chanel The house acquired Coffre Chanel Azur for its private collection and heritage. A rare recognition: the brand quoted becomes the collector of the work that quotes it.

Art Basel Miami Beach First collection shown in 2018: international attention followed at once, and close to two hundred galleries now show his work across every continent.

Le bronze Since 2020, certain pieces have been cast in bronze at a French art foundry. The butterfly then enters the metal.

Self-taught, Roman Feral learned the techniques of bronze and of conservation alone. Two families answer one another in his work today: the pieces in bronze, and those where the natural butterflies remain visible sous verre.

The cabinet of species

Four butterflies,
four continents

Each sculpture gathers named species, described by naturalists as far back as two and a half centuries ago. Here they are, as they pass through his work.

Morpho Menelaus — papillon bleu iridescent d'Amérique du Sud, présent dans les sculptures de Roman Feral — Plate IMorpho Menelaus Linnaeus, 1758 · South America The most celebrated blue of the rainforest. No pigment in the wing: microscopic lamellae sort the light and return the blue alone. It is this butterfly that carries *Chanel Black Pearl*.

Ascia buniae — papillon blanc du Pérou, dit Great White, présent dans les sculptures de Roman Feral — Plate IIAscia buniae Hübner, 1816 · Peru The *Great White*: white wings edged in black, their pattern varying with sex and population. Its restraint gives the pale counterpoint to the blue swarms.

Morpho Godarti — papillon bleu tropical d'Amérique du Sud, présent dans les sculptures de Roman Feral — Plate IIIMorpho Godarti Lucas, 1852 · South America A deeper blue, almost nocturnal. A pollinator of the undergrowth, it never left the naturalists' domain before entering sculpture.

Papilio Ulysses — grand papillon bleu électrique d'Australie et Nouvelle-Guinée, présent dans les sculptures de Roman Feral — Plate IVPapilio Ulysses Linnaeus, 1758 · Australia Electric blue ringed with black, emblem of Queensland and its rainforest. The largest of the four, and the one that gives the swarm its scale.

No specimen is taken from the wild. The partner butterfly houses release part of every hatching back into its native habitat, and take part in raising awareness of tropical biodiversity.

Rive Gauche 19 rue Mazarine, Paris 6^th +33 1 43 54 33 69 Rive Droite 15 rue de Miromesnil, Paris 8^th +33 1 40 07 51 46

The collectors' circle

Becoming a collector
of Roman Feral, at OA Fine Art

Acquiring an artwork by Roman Feral through our galleries opens the door to a private circle around the artist.

A private meeting with the artist
Time alone with Roman Feral, during one of his visits to Paris.
The collectors' dinner
A table bringing together the artist and his collectors, in Paris.
A signed book
His book, signed by the artist.

Biography

The gesture,
and the flight

Roman Feral, born in 1990 in Paris, is a French sculptor whose work marries the icons of luxury to nature's most fragile beauty. A youth spent between Paris and the United States, then a return to France and training at the Atelier de Sèvres: from it he kept a taste for the object made to last, and a fascination with what does not.

The ephemeral made eternal

To set a butterfly wings open is to arrest an instant that lasted a second. The artist speaks of a perpetual journey: the flight does not end, it is merely suspended — and that tension is what makes the work.

The icon as case

A Louis Vuitton trunk, a Chanel case, a padlock: the luxury object is not quoted for its logo but for what it promises — duration, transmission, the unalterable. The butterfly comes to place there exactly the opposite.

Two families

Bronze, cast then polished for tens of hours by hand, where the metal fixes the swarm for good. Natural butterflies, set under glass, which keep their iridescence and the frailty of their origin. Two paths to one question: to arrest the flight without extinguishing the light.

Bronze, and the foundry

Since 2020, certain pieces have been cast in bronze at a French art foundry. More than thirty kilos of metal, ninety hours of polishing by hand: a goldsmith's gesture in the service of an insect weighing a few grams.

Why Roman Feral belongs in a collection

Revealed at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2018, shown in close to two hundred galleries across every continent, present at the Setai in Miami as at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Chanel brought Coffre Chanel Azur into its own heritage collection — the rarest recognition a quoted house can grant.

Nous écrire

Roman
Feral

Bronze and butterflies,
held in flight

Set in flight,
one by one

Four butterflies,
four continents

Becoming a collector
of Roman Feral, at OA Fine Art

The gesture,
and the flight

The ephemeral made eternal

The icon as case

Two families

Bronze, and the foundry

Why Roman Feral belongs in a collection

Discover its estimate

RomanFeral

Bronze and butterflies,held in flight

Set in flight,one by one

Four butterflies,four continents

Becoming a collectorof Roman Feral, at OA Fine Art

The gesture,and the flight

The ephemeral made eternal

The icon as case

Two families

Bronze, and the foundry

Why Roman Feral belongs in a collection

Roman
Feral

Bronze and butterflies,
held in flight

Set in flight,
one by one

Four butterflies,
four continents

Becoming a collector
of Roman Feral, at OA Fine Art

The gesture,
and the flight