Sabbia Gallery presents Maricelle Olivier's solo exhibition 'Chiaroscuro' October 2022

Sabbia Gallery is delighted to present the most recent solo exhibition 'Chiaroscuro' by the wonderful Maricelle Olivier, from 5 to 29 September.

Maricelle is a South African artist exploring her personal history and creating her own space of belonging through the medium of ceramics. The repetitive nature of Maricelle’s practice - the making and laying down of coils on one another, joining and smoothing sections before repeating - relates to the patterns that adorn the surfaces on her work. Unpacking her cultural identity and heritage, the vessels transform into embodiments to hold and reflect emotions. Although Maricelle immigrated fifteen years ago to Australia in 2007, a strong connection to her culture, language and country remains through her contemporary ceramic works.

Maricelle currently lives in Canberra, ACT. Practicing as a full-time artist, she works from her beautiful, sun-lit studio at the Canberra Watson Arts Centre. Maricelle was instantly attracted to the process and conceptual possibilities of ceramics when her high school art teacher first introduced the medium to her. Maricelle has gone on to study Fine Arts at the National Art School, and since graduating with an MFA in Ceramics in 2018, Maricelle has had three solo exhibitions within NSW. Maricelle is represented by Sabbia Gallery in Sydney.

Having participated in many group exhibitions around Australia, including the major group exhibition Clay Dynasty at the Powerhouse Museum, her work has also been selected in the finalist exhibitions The Lake Art Prize (2020) and the North Queensland Ceramic Awards

(2022). A selection of works has been acquired into the National Art School Collection and City of Sydney Collection. Maricelle has recently started assistant teaching at Canberra Potters

Society, previously working as the Ceramic Studio Manager from 2019 until 2021 at Ernabella Arts Centre, an Indigenous art centre located in far north-west remote South Australia.

Chiaroscuro is a technique used in drawing and painting, referring to the treatment of light and shade. It is a formal concept, tracing its roots to the Italian Renaissance meaning “dark” (chiaro) and “light” (scuro).

This term is translated onto Maricelle Olivier’s three-dimensional vessels, creating depth on the surface of each work. Olivier’s work typically consists of various colours on one work, where this body of work strives to create a variety of colour palettes on individual works to bring them together as a whole. Olivier have experimented with adding ceramic coloured stain to ceramic slip to achieve the effect of a gradient shade of a single colour, further achieved through the

repetition of slip lines. This interplay of light and dark tones and pattern on the surface seeks to dramatize the vessels, subtly embedding them with emotion and meaning.