Born in The Netherlands and raised in New Zealand, Sabine Marcelis is a designer who graduated from the Design Academy of Eindhoven in 2011 and now lives and works in the harbour city of Rotterdam. Earning international recognition for her bold experimentation which pushes the limits of both material and production capabilities, Marcelis strives to capture transient moments of light and movement in her work. Creating a fascinating interplay between the static and the ephemeral, Marcelis incites a sensorial experience that transforms resin and glass into soft, luminescent and dynamic pieces that continually surprise.
Recognised for her design talent at a young age, Marcelis was awarded New Zealand Young Designer of the Year, and nominated for a myriad of prestigious design grants. Since opening her design studio, Studio Sabine Marcelis, Marcelis has participated in a series of impressive installation projects including the Aesop Vedovelle Fountain for Milan Design Week in 2017, the Dutch Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival 2017, a light installation at the Belgium Biennale Interieur in 2018, the Solo Sundial project 2018 for A. Lange & Söhne, and the Burberry x Opening Ceremony capsule in 2018. Perhaps most notably, Sabine Marcelis collaborated with FENDI in 2018 for her project The Shapes of Water which was presented at Design Miami/ in 2018 and Art Basel, Hong Kong in 2019. She also presented No Fear of Glass in December of 2019, at the Mies Van de Rohe Foundation in Barcelona. Marcelis was awarded the Wallpaper ‘Designer of the Year’ award in 2020, the Design Prize 2019 in the 'Newcomer of the year' category, The Elle Deco International Design award 2019 'Young designer of the year’ and ‘GQ Men of the year 2019’ International Artist of the year.
Marcelis has been represented by Gallery Sally Dan-Cuthbert since the gallery opened in 2019, and will present her first Australian solo exhibition, Shadow Light, with the gallery from May 24 - June 19, 2022. The exhibition exemplifies the complexity and depth of her material-led practice, that unites her diverse design pieces through her focus on the interaction between light, colour and material. Marcelis has named the exhibition after her new series of captivating wall-based light pieces, which follow from her acclaimed Cycle Mirror which debuted at NGV Melbourne Design Fair earlier this year.
