Marion Gamba

Designed and hand-built by french-born Marion Gamba. These sculptures reveal the beauty hidden in the irregularities of clay as a raw material. Each sculpture is entirely unique and cannot be replicated. Simple forms are functional, some are not; all aim to bring happiness and warmth into the home.

“Our first home is our bodies, an object in which every detail is a work of art. We inhabit this home sculpted of both malleable and sturdy material salvaged from the atoms of our atmosphere. We adapt, effect and morph this body to fit the desires of our changing environment, and our creation of our sense of self. ‘Hands are our tools’ lead by ‘our values’ resulting in forms created for ‘intimate experience’. 

The intersection of art and design, which has a rich history of artists like Giacometti and Hepworth, can be seen in the textures and lines that are the essence of Gamba’s practice. And like her predecessors, her sculptures are neither strictly conceptual or utilitarian; they are meant to support a sense of life without directly imitating any recognizable form. They are distinctly bodily without being figural, purpose built without being didactic.

Selma-Gamba works with clay, that becomes a very hard material, but she describes always ‘looking for something light and airy at the end, looking for pieces that float on a wall. I want to bring movement on to it.’ Approaching ceramic in an unconventional way, her works are not sculpted out of a block, but built-up coil by coil and shaped continuously in an ongoing dialogue between her hands and her material.” - Text by curator Ashlee Conery, with quotes from the artist.