Manuela Paul-Cavallier

Manuela Paul-Cavallier is a trained artisan. Her path initially led her to artistic creation, transforming the ancestral skills of a craftsperson into abstract expressions. Her works employ raw pigments and gold leaf as primary materials.

She later graduated from the University of Florence in Applied Arts and, in 1999, obtained a CAP from the Académie de Paris in gilding. She began her professional life as a restorer and then as a creator of gold objects.

In 2008, she was authorized by the National Museums of France to gild on wood.

This unique professional journey as a wood gilder allowed Manuela Paul-Cavallier to deepen her expertise in Italian, Japanese, and French gilding techniques. She practiced the dialogue between these materials first as a restorer, then as a creator, deliberately choosing high-quality execution and exploring ancestral craftsmanship.

In 2014, she devoted herself to abstract painting. The French Institute in Japan selected her for a residency on “The Aesthetics of Subtraction” at Villa Kujoyama.

That same year, she began her first solo exhibitions at Galerie TSL (Paris 75007) and Galerie Le Préau6 (Paris 75007).

In the following years, the artist focused her pictorial work on abstract art and the combination of French gold heritage—a luxurious and sought-after material—with spontaneous gestures, as a mode of expressing her unique vision of art. In this way, the material becomes an invisible veil, while the gesture seeks to connect with viewers through vibrations and a pursuit of emotion and purity. Manuela Paul-Cavallier evolves through a constant dialogue between herself and those who engage with her works.

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