Léo Nataf

Léo Nataf (b. 1994, Paris) is a French visual artist whose work explores the intersections of anthropology, memory, and cultural transmission. A graduate of Central Saint Martins in London, he currently lives and works in Saint-Denis, France.  

 

Deeply influenced by his diverse heritage—rooted in Jewish, Amazigh, Arab, and African cultures—Nataf’s practice is shaped by extensive travels. From the Amazon to Papua New Guinea, Mexico to North Africa, he has engaged with hunter-gatherer communities, artisans, and spiritual leaders, collecting objects, materials, and stories that inform his art. His multidisciplinary approach encompasses sculpture, painting, and performance, merging ancestral traditions with contemporary artistic experimentation.  

 

His work incorporates a wide range of materials—animal bones, flints, volcanic rocks, ceramics, and metals—transformed through fire, a central element in his creative process. By fusing natural and synthetic substances, he creates hybrid forms that challenge notions of time, archaeology, and spiritual symbolism. His sculptures and paintings often evoke ritual objects, mythical creatures, or dreamlike landscapes, reflecting his fascination with the sacred and the lost.  

 

Nataf’s art is also a personal exploration of identity and displacement. As a descendant of North African exiles and Polish Holocaust survivors, he navigates themes of collective memory, migration, and the intangible transmission of history. His creations act as intermediaries between past and present, weaving together fragments of different cultures into new narratives.  

 

His work has been exhibited in France and internationally, earning recognition for its evocative fusion of anthropology and contemporary art. Through his practice, Léo Nataf continues to reimagine cultural heritage, crafting artworks that serve as both relics of the past and visions of the future.