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Meet the Artists: Lamarche-Ovize EN – Luis Adelantado Valencia

Meet the Artists: Lamarche-Ovize EN

Meet the Artist:
Lamarche-Ovize

Alexandre and Florentine Lamarche-Ovize build with what surrounds them. Their tributes and references to literature, art, and cultural manifestations in its broadest sense, are a recurring element in their work. With them, the limits are transgressed not only in what refers to the motives that drives their work, but also to the medium in which they materialize it; Alexandre & Florentine are able to propose a textile installation of patterns manufactured by themselves, design fun stools, draw a huge format paper, or turn the main character of a children’s story into a festive ornamental flowerpot.

In Meet the Artists: Lamarche-Ovize we have the pleasure of presenting a selection of very special everyday objects, full of wit. Works of art with which to experience and interact without shame, enjoying the details and the joy for entertainment: to turn on and off a sparkling ceramic arm, or growing our favorite plant in a lavish ornate pot, is possible thanks to the humor and warmth of the works by Lamarche-Ovize.

Sketchbook of Florentine and Alexandre Lamarche-Ovize.

“The notebook is our tool when it comes to putting together drawings, ceramics and all the patterns. The sketches originate from diverse reference points, including art history, comic books, daily live, children’s books, etc. Only Florentine works on it, kind of like a cookbook that helps us build the universe that makes up our practice.”

Pieter and Us (Arm), 2021
Ceramic, light and printed fabric. 130 x 50 x 30 cm

“These two pieces are part of a series of ceramic lamps that refer to a painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder: The Fall of the Rebel Angels.”

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Fall of the Rebel Angels, 1562. Oil on oak. 117 x 162 cm. Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels. https://artsandculture.google.com

“We like it a lot because it is a painting full of details that mixes human figures with animals, bodies, flowers, phantasmatic as well as super political.”

Pieter and Us (Purple Flower), 2021
Ceramic, light and printed fabric. 80 x 30 x 30 cm

Les tissages (Joséphine), 2020
Mixed media on paper. 110 x 140 cm

“This series of large-scale works began during lockdown. The general idea was to make a complete and closed image, but containing mixed fragments from different sources. For this we worked with the material that we had on our computer or with the magazines that were at home. Slowly, almost like sewing referents to get an abstract image that needs its own time to be understood.”

“This video borrows footage recorded by Florentine’s grandfather in the 1960s. It consists of two short sequences of flowers. Like everyone else in those years, his grandfather filmed family life, but curiously he also captured many details of nature, especially flowers and animals.”

16 mm film recorded by Florentine Lamarche-Ovize’s grandfather, in the 1960s.

“Five years ago, we managed to get hold of this film collection and we classified all of the flower sequences. Since then, we have been working with the idea of ​​making a project in which we can associate our usual floral motifs with these videos. We would like to work with space: an installation that includes memory, nostalgia, our patterns and the beauty of the video.”

Rufus, 2019
Glazed ceramic. 55 x 45 x 45 cm

“This ceramic planter represents a bat; it’s grotesque, ornamental… and quite a fun piece for us. It also refers to the children’s story Rufus by Tomi Ungerer. It is a functional work close to decorative art.”

Alexandre Lamarche and Florentine Ovize are a duo of French artists who have been working together since 2006. Their artistic practice explicitly refers to the Arts & Crafts movement as an attitude in which they materialize thought in objects, giving rise to a variety of hybrid forms.

To inquire about an artwork: [email protected]

Credits
Project Management: Virginia Murcia
Photography: Moore Studio
DA & Style: Elissa Castelbou-Loiret
Translation: Maya Guerrero