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Marianne Nielsen crafts delicate ceramic arrangements, which expose the synthetic and psychological aspects of the natural world. Through the lens of botany and a naturalist approach, she produces an herbarium of gestural forms that preserve the liveliness of plants. In reexamining the still life genre, her works evoke the ephemeral forms of overgrown spaces, crystalizing transient and fleeting moments. Nielsen’s subjects are found throughout nature as well as the decorative arts: in textile patterns, architectural elements, and the general abstracting of form across vernacular craft traditions. As a result, many of her works improvise on the basic format of vase, plate, or decorative dish. At other times, the artist isolates botanical scenarios and chance compositions from field and forest through the slow and detailed observation of her surroundings. Hers is an attention which aims not to simply comprehend the whole but to see each petal, stamen, burl, and stem for its rudimentary elements. Looking at Nielsen’s porcelain and stoneware sculptures, one finds an articulation of the vast taxonomy of natural forms nested within and alongside human culture.
Nielsen graduated from the Design School Kolding in the department of ceramics and glass. Her work has been exhibited at the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, the Vejen Art Museum, the Biennale for Craft & Design in Copenhagen, and the Nordic Craft Pavilion at the Grand Palais in Paris. She is a recipient of the Annie & Otto Johannes Detlefs Ceramics Prize, the Danish Arts Foundation Award, the Danish Crafts Award, the Danish National Bank Jubilee Fund of 1968, and the Ole Haslund Foundation Grant. Nielsen’s works are in the collections of the CLAY Museum of Ceramic Art, Middelfart, Denmark; the Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Vejen Art Museum, Vejen, Denmark.
[…] Marianne Nielsen chatted with us about her show, Leaf, Stem, Twig, on view until June 15 at HB381 Gallery in Tribeca. The ceramic sculptures in the exhibition depict aspects of the natural world. Nielson approaches her work not just as an artist, but in the way a naturalist or botanist would, striving for minute detail. To learn more, listen to the complete interview. […]