Nicolas Cesbron  Nicolas Cesbron is a French artist. He was born in Reims, in Champagne, France. His work has been referred to as "the new Art Nouveau," walking the line between woodwork and sculpture. His furniture designs are comfortable and functional, but also poetic and aesthetically sophisticated. In an interview, he explained, "the objects I have carved a soul beyond the functionality." Cesbron's studio is a remodeled ironworks space, at Saint Denis between Fort de Briche et le Boulevard Périphérique in Paris. He has shown his work in Barcelona, Brussels, Paris, and cities throughout Germany. A sculptural wooden staircase he created is installed in the Christian Louboutin Ginza boutique in Tokyo. He was interested in woodworking as a child, but under pressure from his parents, studied physics instead. He went on to teach at a university in the Ivory Coast in West Africa where, in his spare time, he became interested in the African art of wood-carving. Thereafter, he returned to France and earned his Ph.D. in physics at a university there while developing his own woodworking skills. Cesbron had his first major art exhibition in 1994 at the Musée de l'Orangerie in the center of Paris. It aroused a great deal of attention and after another year as a physicist at the university, he turned to art as a profession.