French textile artist Élise Peroi has been named to the prestigious Artsy Vanguard 2026, recognizing her as one of ten emerging talents poised to become future leaders in contemporary art. Working from her studio in the medieval town of Arles, France, Peroi creates ethereal weavings that combine ancestral tapestry techniques with a distinctly contemporary artistic language.
Peroi's translucent, pastel-hued silk works are suspended within window-like frames reminiscent of traditional looms, opening up otherworldly spaces that evoke ancient tapestries while speaking an entirely modern visual vocabulary. Her upcoming accolades include receiving the Pierre Cardin Prize in sculpture on November 19th, following her first solo exhibition in New York titled "For Thirsting Flowers" at Carvalho gallery last spring.
The artist's journey began at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where she studied textile design and earned her MFA in 2015. Upon graduation, she received the Prize of Excellence from the City of Brussels, which opened doors to institutional projects and residencies worldwide. "I wanted to do everything I could to keep weaving, and my work eventually found its voice in the contemporary art field," Peroi reflected on her educational path.
Peroi's artistic process is deeply rooted in hand-weaving and the repetition of ancestral techniques, into which she weaves her own contemplations on landscape, gesture, architecture, and breath. Each composition requires intense focus, taking anywhere from one week to three months to complete. "I can only work on one composition at a time," she explained, describing how her process begins with research and drawing, often sparked by a resonant philosophical or poetic sentence.
The physical act of weaving holds profound meaning for the artist, serving as both a creative and therapeutic practice. "Early on in my practice, weaving had a psychoanalytic dimension. It was difficult, though not in a negative way. It was about letting things come out of the body," she explained. Over time, her relationship with the loom has evolved into something more calming than meditative, providing a sense of forward momentum as each piece takes shape.
Peroi's technique involves painting abstract and nature-inspired motifs directly onto silk, then cutting into the painted surfaces and reweaving selected fragments while leaving others open. The finished tapestries are mounted onto wooden rectangular frames, usually in pairs, with diamond-shaped openings at the sides that echo the rhythmic pattern of silk weft interlacing with linen warp. Her installations create visual experiences where viewers' gazes travel through up to four layers, as seen in her large installation "Vestige des plantes absentes" (2025), currently displayed in the group exhibition "The Rose That Grew From Concrete" at the Museo di Sant'Orsola in Florence.
The artist's work draws from deep family roots in textile and manuscript arts. Her mother, a highly skilled seamstress, introduced her to the world of fabric and sewing machines from an early age. Her paternal grandmother worked as an illuminator and calligrapher on the "Kalendrier des Bergiers," a medieval calendar printed from engraved wood. "From a very young age, I had the urge to create pieces that spoke of literature or poetry, interweaving the materiality of fabric with poems," Peroi recalls, noting how she learned to write with a quill and apply gold leaf under her grandmother's guidance.
During her textile studies, Peroi practiced qi gong, the Chinese meditative martial art, and has since integrated its embodied understanding of space into her artistic process. The non-woven spaces in her work evoke breath, inviting viewers into a form of presence within the constructed landscapes. Philosophical writings, particularly François Jullien's 2014 book "Vivre de paysage," have influenced her approach to landscape not as static imagery but as something to be traversed and inhabited.
Since relocating to Arles, Peroi has embraced a broader color palette and begun experimenting with silk's natural sheen, which dulls where painted and glows where left bare. Her recent work explores the relationship between weaving and painting as equal partners, leading to smaller formats that recall classical marine paintings. In 2026, Carvalho gallery will present her work in a solo booth at Frieze Los Angeles, marking another milestone in her rapidly ascending career.
As Peroi continues to push the boundaries between traditional craft and contemporary art, her work seems to guide her toward new discoveries. Friends remind her that even during her specialization in Brussels, she always expressed a desire to create "woven paintings." For this innovative artist bridging centuries of textile tradition with modern artistic expression, the creative thread has been there all along, weaving together past and future in her luminous, breathing sculptures.
