# Sabine Marcelis

Sabine Marcelis (born 1985) is a Dutch artist and designer. Typically focused on themes of transparency, reflection, opacity and translucency, often using pastel colours, minimalist shapes, smooth surfaces, and materials such as resin, glass, and stone, she has described her work as “an investigation of light, how it can create effects and atmospheres."

## Early life and education

Marcelis was born in Alkmaar, Netherlands. She emigrated to Waihi, New Zealand, with her family at the age of 10. She studied industrial design at Victoria University of Wellington before returning to Holland in her early twenties to study at the Design Academy Eindhoven. Before pursuing a career in design, Marcelis competed in semi-professional snowboarding.

## Work and career

After graduating from the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011, she founded Studio Sabine Marcelis in Rotterdam, where she lives and works. Her studio has consulted for companies such as Audi, Bulgari, Céline, IKEA, Fendi, Isabel Marant, Stella McCartney, and Renault.

### Design

Marcelis has designed furniture, lighting, packaging, and accessories for brands such as Acerbis Design [it], Arco, Calico Wallpaper, cc-tapis, Established & Sons, La Prairie [fr], Mathmos, Natuzzi, and the Swedish furniture brand Hem.
She collaborated with IKEA on a collection of lamps and homewares which were commercialised in 2023.
In 2024, the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam commissioned Marcelis to design a new piece. The result is an industrially manufactured stacking chair made of aluminium called the Stedelijk Chair.

### Installations

In 2019, Marcelis was invited by the Mies van der Rohe Foundation to participate in its Interventions programme, a series of temporary installations in the Barcelona Pavilion which has featured artists and architects such as Ai Weiwei, Enric MIralles, and Ryue Nishizawa. Her contribution was a group of pieces titled "No Fear of Glass", a play on Josep Quetglas Riusech's 2001 book about the building "Fear of Glass".
She produced a temporary installation titled "Swivel" in St Giles Square in London for the 2022 London Design Festival.
In 2022, the Vitra Design Museum staged "Colour Rush! An Installation by Sabine Marcelis" in which she reorganised the approximately 400 pieces held in the Schaudepot [de] exhibition warehouse collection by colour.
In 2024, the High Museum of Art added Marcelis's Panorama to a decade-long series of monumental outdoor art installations. The kinetic work, a composition of four large, rotating red and orange mirrored glass columns, "traverses the boundary between art and design". According to the museum, it is "the designer's first monumental and kinetic work". Other artists who have contributed to the series, which is staged on the Woodruff Arts Center's Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza, include Tanya Aguiñiga, Ignacio Cadena, Héctor Esrawe, Jaime Hayon, Bryony Roberts, and Yuri Suzuki. Also in 2024, she designed Stacked, an abstract sculptural water fountain for Amsterdam's Vondelpark.

### Exhibitions and collections

Collections holding examples of Marcelis's work include the Stedelijk museum in Amsterdam, Design Museum Gent, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen and the Collection Vedute at the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam (in the Netherlands); the Vitra Design Museum in Germany; and the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV).
Her work has been exhibited at galleries such as Etage Projects in Copenhagen, Gallery Collectional in Dubai, Side Gallery in Barcelona, Carwan Gallery in Greece, Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert in Australia, and Design Miami. In 2023, she designed a unique "art version" of the Renault Twingo which was shown at the Pompidou Centre in Paris.
Eight sculptures by Marcelis created for the 2023 Mille Miglia, for which she also designed the prize winners' trophies, were donated to the city of Brescia and exhibited the Cloister of the University of Brescia.
In 2024, her collaboration with traditional Japanese lacquerware artisans Kawatsura Shikki was included in a Tokyo exhibition at Kudan House called Craft x Tech Tohoku Project. The work, a series titled Yōkan, includes three pieces – two tables and a wall mounted abstract piece, all made using traditional Urushi lacquer on hand-crafted wood. The show was curated by Maria Cristina Didero and also included works by Studio Swine, Ini Archibong, Yoichi Ochiai, Hideki Yoshimoto, and Michael Young. The work was subsequently exhibited at the Victoria and Albert museum in London during the London Design Festival.

### Teaching

She is a mentor for both the Women Bauhaus Collective and the Lexus Design Award, and also teaches at the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne (ECAL).

## Personal life

Her partner is the architect Paul Cournet. They have a son who was born during the Covid pandemic. Marcelis observed that her piece called "Boa", a torus shaped pouf, is “helping him learn how to walk. And it's also a perfect spot to safely place him if I have to quickly leave the room.” They also have a daughter, who was born in 2024.

## Inspiration

At the age of 16, Marcelis was an avid snowboarder. In an interview with Surface magazine, she states that her use of snowboarding goggles made her realize the powerful effect colour has on one's environment. This helped her develop her work titled "Colour Rush" which was released in May 2022 at the Vitra Design Museum.
Specifically, Marcelis also stated that her inspiration stems from the architect Hans Hollein for his works with not only architecture but also his work with jewelry.

## Awards

* 2019 GQ Men of the Year Awards "International Artist of the Year"
* 2019 Elle Deco International Design Award "Young Designer of the Year"
* 2019 Designboom Design Prize "Best Design Newcomer"
* 2020 Wallpaper* "Designer of the Year"
* 2022 Architectural Digest "AD100"
* 2023 Elle Deco International Design Award "Designer of the Year"
* 2023 Monocle Magazine "Designer of the year"
* 2024 Dezeen Awards, "Designer of the year"

## Publications

* Marcelis, Sabine; Puigjaner, Anna (2021). Pestellini Laparelli, Ippolito (ed.). No Fear of Glass. Barcelons: Fundació Mies van der Rohe. p. 60. ISBN 978-8412367096.