Océane Madelaine

July 3 - September 2, 2021

Océane Madelaine - Written bowl 2021, stoneware, h. 30 cm, diam. 32cm

First presented in 2013 at Galerie de l'Ancienne Poste alongside Alistair Danhieux, French ceramist Océane Madelaine returns this summer for a solo show that bears witness to the continuation of a faultless career in which writing and container are subtly linked.

Born in 1980, Océane Madelaine studied literature before discovering ceramics during a stay in Morocco. On her return to France, she decided to train at the CNIFOP in St-Amand en Puisaye (Nièvre), then at the Maison de la Céramique in Dieulefit (Drôme). She furthered her training with an internship with Eric Astoul in La Borne (Cher).

Océane Madelaine in Connaissance des Arts

Océane Madelaine set up her first studio in 2010 in the Corbières region, in the heart of the garrigue of southern France, where she pursues the two inseparable activities that mark her creative path: writing and ceramics. Here, she develops her work in stoneware and porcelain-paper, which she engraves and decorates with engobes and oxide juices. Certain forms are favored, such as the bowl or jar. The abstract expressionism of Cy Twombly or more graphic works such as those by Pierrette Bloch have left their mark on her approach to line and color. So each jar becomes a wall on which to seize and furtively inscribe traces: a trembling line, a splash of watercolor, a fragment of writing or landscape. So many memories of a presence retained and restored in matter.

His discovery of the village of La Borne inspired his first novel, Of clay and firepublished in 2015, is yet another bridge between the world of language and the world of clay.

Since 2016, Océane Madelaine has lived and worked in Finistère, near Brest, opposite the island of Ouessant. This other environment is part of the landscape of her sea bowls or moorland bowls, adjacent to its written bowls or spotted born in the garrigue. It also partly inspired his second novel, Poppy cove, published in 2020. In Toucy, some thirty large enamelled containers, small boxes and a set of fine bottles make up this summer exhibition.