New Zealand-raised Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis is an award-winning product, installation, and spatial designer with a focus on materiality and sustainability. Exploring the interplay between light, color, and transparency, her work is at the forefront of contemporary material innovation in product and installation design.
Creating a dialogue between object and user, Marcelis develops sensorial experiences in which the experience becomes the function, with a refined and unique aesthetic. Using material research and experimentation to intervene in the manufacturing process, she forges partnerships with industry specialists to bring her ambitiously experimental projects to fruition.
Marcelis is the recipient of two prestigious Wallpaper* awards: Designer of the Year 2020 and the 2019 Design Prize for Newcomer of the Year, as well as the ELLE DECOR International Design Award for Young Designer of the Year and GQ’s International Artist of the Year, both in 2019. She has also been selected as a mentor for the 2021 Lexus Design Award, the international design competition for the world’s emerging designers.
Her work has been exhibited at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam and Musee des art Decoratif, Paris. Her custom project client list includes Fendi, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Aesop, Burberry x Opening Ceremony, A. Lange & Söhne, and IKEA.
For the second annual Noor Riyadh festival, a festival of light and art taking place across the capital of Saudi Arabia, Marcelis utilized colored two-way mirrored glass to create an ephemeral sculpture titled ‘Light Horizon.’
Encapsulating the theme, ‘We Dream of New Horizons,’ ‘Light Horizon’ is a light-based, immersive and interactive artwork comprising 11 staggered glass columns. During the day, these cast myriad light reflections and shadows defined by their varying orientations. By night, ‘Light Horizon’ comes to life – the pillars light up from within, turning them translucent, completely changing the feel and concept of the piece. The scale of the artwork allows the audience to wander through and immerse themselves within the larger-than-life horizon to seek out their own slice of this unique experience.
Marcelis created an artwork based on her contemporary vision of the iconic ‘Miss Dior’ fragrance. The perfume stands for love, freedom and the feminine essence, which translates itself in the artwork.
The ‘Miss Dior Exhibition 12 Women Artists’ by Parfums Christian Dior features interpretations of the fragrance in Monsieur Dior’s famed Chateau de la Colle Noire in Provence, as the brand opens the designer’s home for the first time to the public. In this rarefied setting, all artistic interpretations on beauty and femininity come together.
Sabine Marcelis designs ‘VARMBLIXT’, a luminous new collection that explores the effects of light at home for IKEA.
Simple to the eye, the designs of the two textured, matte, and largely opaque metal lamps in VARMBLIXT are rooted in an idea from Sabine to shape a line of light with a simple gesture. The circular lamp constitutes a complete line, top half curved slightly for light to wash onto the wall from there. To play with its design, its colour also has a particular purpose.
I always strive to make people curious. I would want people to really wonder how on earth this is made and how it can be balancing the way it is. It is a playful piece, so I hope people take away both a sense of wonder and a sense of happiness. - Sabine Marcelis
Sabine Marcelis debuts her serie of mirrors ‘Mirage’ during Dubai Design Week, commissioned for Gallery Collectional Dubai. ‘Mirage’ is inspired by Dubai and it marks the designer’s first time exploring the possibilities of light through mirrors, with the warmth of the desert reflected in rich and vivid hues.
For Gallery Collectional creative director Catalina Ruiz Urquiola, the new space is a chance to take a closer look at the work of individual designers. In the ‘Shape of Things to Come’, new works by independent designers are presented alongside those of more established design houses in a thoughtful showcase that considers the dialogue between function and aestheticism.
Since 2008, FENDI has supported limited edition creativity and design through its partnership with Design Miami/. To mark the 10-year anniversary of this partnership, the luxury Maison partnered with Marcelis to present ‘The Shapes of Water,’ a project by dedicated to rediscover water as a design tool, whose delicate beauty the designer has magnified by realizing ten fountains inspired by ten of the most iconic symbols of the historical Roman house.
Further celebrating the 10th anniversary of the ‘Peekaboo’ bag, FENDI gave Marcelis carte blanche to reinterpret the iconic style, transforming it from a white canvas version into a design masterpiece. Marcelis chose to freeze the design within a resin block, preserving a hint of functionality within this new sculptural object by only encapsulating the lower volume of the bag. The translucent resin colour exaggerated the three-dimensionality of the shape frozen within.
The customized Peekaboo bags customized by Marcelis and four other international artists debuted at the FENDI boutique in the Miami Design District, displayed on special podiums in hues of yellow designed by Marcelis herself.
"It is through clean and soft lines and the use of ethereal materials such as polished resin and water in contrast with the historical travertine stone, and warm colors reminiscent of the Roman skies, that the fountains of Sabine Marcelis represent the perfect fusion between the historical, creative and aesthetic legacy of FENDI and its courage to provoke."
"Now, more than ever, innovative design-led ideas will play an important role in shaping our future. I cannot wait to guide and help shape and realize these ideas…putting a focus on sustainable production processes and innovative and environmentally friendly material choices."
"The designer has choreographed them in such a way that as one walks through the space these differences are noticeable, giving the installation both visual and acoustic qualities. The serene simplicity of the fountains is deceptive, however; a complex mechanism provides the magic unseen."
Sabine Marcelis creates a rainbow of furniture installation for the Vitra Design Museum.
For its annual exhibition at the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Schaudepot, Vitra Design Museum invited designer Sabine Marcelis to explore its archives and create a visually arresting, rainbow-inspired immersive installation of furniture. Titled ‘Colour Rush!’, the exhibition (on view until May 2023) is a fitting project for Marcelis, reflective of her trademark approach to design, which entails creating a sensorial experience in static objects by playing with light, color, and transparency. Through the contemporary design objects on display, Marcelis makes us reflect on the ways colour has been used by some of the world’s most influential designers.
IKEA launches its latest Art Event Collection, presenting a range of domestic objects that blur the boundaries between art and design. The collection features new work by Marcelis, multidisciplinary creative Daniel Arsham, as well as artists Gelthop, Humans Since 1982 and Stefan Marx.
Marcelis’s pair of wall sconces is based on the interaction between light and color, with a warm chromatic glow elevating the experience of the piece.
‘Art places an important part in our everyday lives; it triggers emotions, sparks conversations. Having this imaginative space and time in our lives enriches us as human beings. This collection explores the sweet spot between art and design.’
Sabine Marcelis collaborated with Audi to create a charging pole for the city of Amsterdam, designed with materials that make the city.
The base volume is made from 3d printed sand the foundation on which the city is build. The top volume consists of layered glass which reflects its surroundings and draws the city into the sculptural object. Hidden in these layers are solar cells, made using a revolutionary system that makes them completely invisible, allowing the pole to generate its own electricity to give back to the inhabitants of the city.
Swedish design brand Hem and Marcelis have unveiled their first collaboration, the Boa Pouf, a whimsical furniture piece boasting a familiar rounded, donut shape that Marcelis frequently employs in her work.
The pouf’s effortless appearance took two years of development and roughly a dozen prototypes – the result fits in well with Hem’s progressive and experimental nature, and it’s a perfect debut for Marcelis within the company’s collection. The seat is available in candy-colored hues of yellow, pink and white, upholstered to create a shape that is as perfectly smooth as possible.
'Sabine’s mastery of colour and geometry makes her a natural collaborator for Hem and we have admired her work for years.'
'I have this fascination and love with the donut. It is such a perfectly complete and finite shape that is straightforward but not boring.'
Calico Wallpaper unveiled a new collection of one-of-a-kind wallcoverings called Dawn designed in collaboration with top designers. Nick and Rachel Cope, co-founders of Calico Wallpaper, enlisted Ini Archibong, Marcelis, Dimorestudio and Neri&Hu to expand their signature collection, Aurora, with a series of gradient designs that aim to inspire hope and optimism during these challenging times.
Each design was created during the summer and fall of 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, requiring the designers to work remotely. Recognizing the impact of the global pandemic on individuals, communities and businesses, Calico Wallpaper is donating a portion of the proceeds to charities that were picked by the designers, like the Environmental Defense Fund and UN Refugee Agency, among others.
"We laid the foundation for Calico Wallpaper during Hurricane Sandy in 2013. Though different from the present moment in so many ways, that time of uncertainty left us stuck in our Brooklyn home, looking for creative outlets to provide solace and ignite our imaginations. We want to remind the global design community—and everyone it touches—that the crises of today will also pass.
Marcelis transformed an annular Spanish villa into a large-scale installation for luxury watch label, A. Lange & Söhne. Titled ‘24 Hours,’ the piece utilized the circular building and an abundance of natural light to create a luminous and reflective timepiece.
Designed by Belgian architects Kersten Geers and David van Severen of Office KGDVS, the villa is part of Solo Houses, an architectural endeavor in the mountainous region of Matarraña, Spain consisting of 15 buildings to date, each designed by an emerging international architect. Geers and van Severen’s concrete and glass building was designed with environmental harmony in mind, emphasizing the natural surroundings.
The 45-meter diameter of the hollow circular building provided the perfect space for Marcelis’s timepiece, created to celebrate the release of A. Lange & Söhne’s Datograph Up/Down ‘Lumen,’ in collaboration with Openhouse Magazine. ‘24 Hours’ draws together light, color and form in an explorative sundial that works by way of a cleverly placed obelisk. Situated at the center of the courtyard, the colored mirrored glass obelisk tells the time by casting varying gradients of yellow and blue onto the soil throughout the day.
“Limited edition pieces and site-specific work are my main focus right now. It’s liberating – and that’s very important to me. Being able to move on to other projects gives me a real sense of freedom in my work.”
“These simple gestures of reflection, shadow, refraction, fusion – it’s all made possible simply because of the existence of light."
For Milan Design Week 2019, Marcelis collaborated with La Rinascente, Milan’s historic designer department store in Piazza Duomo, on its second edition of The Green Life, a sustainable showing created to make clients reflect on increasingly urgent environmental issues. Marcelis created three activations that engaged the store’s interiors and exteriors:
Marcelis created a boulevard of 16 huge century-old olive trees in the outside area between the store and the Duomo as an homage to Italian vegetation. The Boulevard Installation gifted passersby with a peaceful moment of relaxation amidst the greenery, where Marcelis’s seats in various shades of orange punctuated the often-crowded space.
"Colorful disks of plexiglass twist and float around the many kinds of plants and trees, overlapping to contribute to a constant changing and alternating of colors. As a result, a dance is created where color and nature take the lead."
Marcelis installed eight moving sculptures in La Rinascente’s display windows, called The Plant Ballet, that existed in perfect harmony with the boulevard, featuring plants and trees of diverse species with multicolored plexiglass discs. The discs become brightly colored statues inviting visitors inside, overlapping to contribute to a constant changing and alternating of colors and creating a biological dance led by color and nature.
Marcelis continued the triumphant greenery inside with Plants are in the Air, bringing two in-store installations to the Design Supermarket and to the fourth floor with a curated exhibition area alongside the retail spaces with tropical plants, succulents, aromatics, rare species, and miniature trees that can be both admired and purchased.
“The three projects confirm Sabine Marcelis’s approach to design, providing an authentic sensorial experience transcending static simplicity with a unique and refined aesthetic.”
Marcelis is represented by Etage Projects in Copenhagen, Gallery Bensimon in Paris, Mint Gallery in London, Side Gallery in Barcelona, and Victor Hunt Gallery in Brussels.
"Her lights and mirrors focus on the use of circular shapes to project illumination and reflection. With resin, glass, and neon her pieces stand out in a variety of colorways and slightly off-kilter structures giving them a natural, almost organic feel. It’s a beautiful study in light and color.”
“Her practice has mainly been based on capturing the wide-ranging effects of light hitting curiously diverse types of mass. Her pieces have thus become an intellectually hearty and chromatically thrilling condensation of large-scale natural happenstances, such as the moment sunlight converses with the mountains and the sea, into functional objects and compact installations brought down to their essence.”
“Inspiration can spark from anywhere, often in the form of the smallest, most unexpected details when I’m traveling. Nature is also a huge source of inspiration, like when the sun meets a passing cloud and creates this magical, changing moment. That’s why I love working with glass and cast resins, because of the way they interact with light.”
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