Marion Verboom’s works embody some of the most recent developments in contemporary sculpture, while remaining firmly rooted in history. They are striking for their diversity of materials, shapes and colours, and can be interpreted on several levels. Verboom’s sculpture is often associated with the notion of hybridisation, insofar as she brings together seemingly distant or even opposing elements to create new forms: parts of musical instruments, mechanical objects or anthropomorphic representations combine in a poetic narrative that arouses the viewer’s curiosity. This sculpture is, however, anything but anecdotal. There are numerous references to roots, both personal and collective, as well as to the history of art (witness the Madonnas series, and the references to Bourdelle and Maillol in the new works). Verboom places artistic gesture and technical experimentation at the heart of her practice: porcelain is sometimes enamelled, sometimes matt, and contrasts with crystal, which in the latest works evokes the milky whiteness of alabaster.
For her first exhibition at Galerie Lelong & Co. she is presenting four Achronies, superimposed elements of different shapes, colours and materials that rise up in columns and evoke “cores”, cylindrical samples of soil that help us to better understand the geology and archaeology of a place. These are intimate, contemporary archaeologies, where we find superimposed the modelling of a clockwork mechanism, a double portrait of Virginia Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir, a Merovingian capital, an element from a flute, etc. In conversation with these totem poles, small-scale sculptures, figures and high-reliefs in clay and glass will also be shown.
Upon graduating from the Paris École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts (2009), Verboom joined the De Ateliers artist-in-residence programme (Amsterdam, 2009/2011). Her recent solo exhibitions include Megaron, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin, 2023; Pistillus, le Voyage à Nantes, 2023; Chryséléphantine, La Verrière - Fondation d’entreprise Hermès (Brussels, 2023); Peptapon, Le Carré Centre d’art contemporain (Château-Gontier, 2021); La Vitrine, FRAC Île-de-France (Paris, 2020) and Lectio Difficilior Potior, at the Musée de l’Abbaye de Sainte-Croix (Les Sables, 2015). She has participated in group exhibitions You Know Who (Ömer Koç Collection), Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion (Istanbul, 2022); and Against Nature, MO.CO. Panacée (Montpellier, 2022); Le Vent se lève, MAC VAL (Val-de-Marne, 2020); Sculptures infinies: des collections de moulages à l’ère digitale, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian (Lisbon, 2020) and École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (Paris, 2019); Jeunes Artistes en Europe. Les Métamorphoses, Fondation Cartier (Paris, 2019). She contributed to the installation in the new “Toguna” space at the Palais de Tokyo (2018), has collaborated with Maison Chloé, (2017–2020) and was the recipient of the LVMH Métiers d’Art grant and residency (2018).
Her work can be found in a number of public collections, including the MAC VAL, the FNAC, the Fonds municipal d’art contemporain de la Ville de Paris, FRAC Bretagne and Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Madrid.
As part of the Paris Gallery Weekend (24-25-26 May), a conversation between Marion Verboom and Erik Verhagen, Professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Lille and art critic, will take place on Saturday 25 May at 3pm at 38 avenue Matignon.
