Marion Verboom

Marion Verboom’s sculptures bring together a syntax of minimalism with methods of hybridization and a culture of sampling. Inspired by architecture, urbanism, mythology, ancestral crafts as much as forms of logosyllabic writing, Verboom’s sculptures and installations operate through iteration, by assembling contiguous or disjointed fragments in modular combinations that are adaptive and context-specific.

Since 2015, Verboom has been creating a series of totemic sculptures titled “Achronies”, in reference to their timeless inscription. With these vertical assemblages Verboom subverts the traditional architectural column with patterns and motifs from a vast repertory of ancient and modern civilisations, intertwined with more biographical and organic elements. Using a diverse range of raw materials such as concrete, wood, plaster, bronze, clay, aluminum, and acrylic resin, her sculptures activate multiple material histories and unfold in a wide color spectrum. The artist’s strategic use of moulding and casting techniques add to the animate quality of her sculptures’ surfaces, sometimes integrating accidents along the way and playing with incompatibilities as much as continuities, while their modular layout opens up infinite possibilities of arrangement in accordance with space and variations of light. The works carry an incessant permeability toward a multiplicity of histories of art and aesthetics, activating a perception that combines macro and micro scales, deep time and futuristic projections. The slow transformation of living forms meets the wanderings, mutations and alterations of the symbol across history and geography. Verboom activates simultaneously the modernist style and its primitive occurrence in an unbridled archeology of forms caught between ancestral knowledge, utopian ideals and cultural hybridization. 

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 “Chryséléphantine”, La Verrière – Fondation d'entreprise Hermès, (Brussels, 2023); “Peptapon”, Le Carré Centre d'art contemporain (Château-Gontier, 2021);  La Vitrine, FRAC Ile-de-France (Paris, 2020) and “Lectio Difficilior Potior”, MASC, Museum of the Abbaye de Sainte-Croix (Les Sables, 2015). She has participated in group exhibitions “You Know Who” (Ömer Koç Collection), Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion (Istanbul, 2022); “Against Nature”,  MO.CO. Panacée (Montpellier, 2022); “Le Vent se lève”, MAC VAL (Val de Marne, 2020); “Infinite Sculptures: From the Antique Cast to the 3D Scan”, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, 2020) & École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris (Paris, 2019); “Metamorphosis, Art in Europe Now” and Fondation Cartier (Paris, 2019) among others. She contributed to the installation in the new “Toguna” space at the Palais de Tokyo (2018), has collaborated with Maison Chloé, (2017–2018) and was the recipient of the LVMH Métiers d’Art grant and residency (2018). Her works are present in several public collections, including Fonds national d’art contemporain, Fonds municipal d’art contemporain de la Ville de Paris, FRAC Bretagne, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo Madrid and MAC VAL.

Marion Verboom (1983) lives and works in Paris.

Education

2011 De Ateliers, Amsterdam, NL
2009 DNSEP, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, FR

Solo Exhibitions

2023 Pistillus, Voyage à Nantes, Nantes, FR Chryséléphantine, cur. Joël Riff, Fondation d’Entreprise Hermès, Brussels, BE Mégaron, Wentrup Gallery, Berlin, DE
2022 ILINX, THE PILL, Paris, FR Agôn, The Steidz, Paris, FR
2021 FIAC - Hors les Murs, Jardin des Tuileries, Paris, FR Peptapon, Le Carré, Château-Gontier, FR
2020 La Vitrine du FRAC Ile-de-France. Paris, FR If you Listen Carefully...I’ll Show You How To Dance, Chloé Fashion Show Fall Winter 20-21, Paris, FR
2018 Cosmovisions, cur. Marianne Derrien, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR ShowRoom - Maison Chloé, Paris Temporaldaten, Galerie Jérôme Poggi, Paris, FR
2017 Selfridges Windows, Maison Chloé, London, UK Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR
2016 Gesh, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR
2015 Lectio Difficilior Potior, MASC, Museum of the Abbaye de Sainte-Croix in Les Sables d’Olonne, FR
2014 Gamers, Anne de Villepoix Galerie, Paris, FR
2012 Agger, 40mCube, Les Prairies – Les ateliers de Rennes / contemporary art biennale, FR Claire-voie, BIS71 Ruimte voor kunst, Geleen, ND Loess, Primo Piano, Contemporary art space, Paris, FR
2011 Work on paper, Jan Cunen Museum, Oss, NL Mirage, Jeanine Hofland Contemporary Art, Amsterdam, NL
2010 Le regard décanteur, ENSBA studio d’ Elsa Cayo, Paris, FR

Group Exhibitions

2023 ... it doesn’t get better than this, Galerie Lange + Pult, Auvernier, CH Healing Ruins, cur. Anlam de Coster, Zeyrek Cinili Hamam, Istanbul, TR Futurs Anterieurs, Centre Culturel Jean Cocteau, Les Lilas, FR
2022 You Know Who (Ömer Koç Collection), Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion, Istanbul, TR Toucher Terre, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, FR Against Nature, MO.CO. Panacee, Montpellier, FR AS IF IT COULDN’T, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR
2021 MISA VAN HAM KUNST_HALLE, Cologne, DE Nous irons tous au paradis, FRAC Normandie, Caen, FR
2020 Le Vent se lève, MAC VAL - Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val de Marne, FR Infinite Sculptures: From the Antique Cast to the 3D Scan, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, PT
2019 Infinite Sculptures: From the Antique Cast to the 3D Scan, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, FR De la Terre à la Lune, Passerelle, Brest, FR Some of Us, Nord Art, DE Gaia Has a Thousand Names, Elgiz Museum, Istanbul, TR Metamorphosis, Art in Europe Now, Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris, FR
2018 FORMES D’HISTOIRES, Les Tanneries, Centre d’art contemporain - Amilly, FR SCULPTER (faire à l’atelier), FRAC Bretagne, Rennes, FR
2017 Toguna, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, FR Décomposition d’une maison, Le 116 - centre d’art contemporain, Montreuil, FR Surreal House, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR En toute modestie - Archipel Di Rosa, MIAM, Sète, FR
2016 Who cares?, Anne de Villepoix Gallery, Paris, FR
2015 Ailleurs, Church Les Cordeliers, Parthenay, FR Sculptures, Duo show with Maude Maris, La Permanence, Clermont-Ferrand, FR En toute modestie – Archipel Di Rosa, cur. Julie Crenn, MIAM, Sète, FR
2014 La piste des apaches, Biennale de Belleville, cur. Patrice Joly, Paris, FR Anne de Villepoix Galerie, Vitrine, Paris, FR FIAC, New FMAC Acquisitions- Grand Palais, Paris, FR
2013 Pavillon Moret, Le Commissariat in Treize, Paris, FR À portée de regard, Les Trinitaires, Metz, FR La Rime et la Raison, L’Escaut, Bruxelles, BE Cairn, Mélanie Rio Gallery, Nantes, FR
2012 Man-Made, Dominique Fiat gallery, Paris, FR Ubiquité, Exhibition for the Sciences-Po pour l’art contemporain, IEP de Paris, FR Duo show with Éric Dizambourg, Le vestibule de la Maison Rouge, Fondation Antoine de Galbert, Paris, FR
2011 Psychopomp Council, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, NL Kelvedon, Duo show with Eva Nielsen, Maison des Arts de Grand Quevilly, Rouen, FR Architecture redéployée, contemporary art center, Villiers-sur-Marne, FR
2010 Mouvement des atomes, mobilité des formes, ENSBA, Paris, FR
2009 Slick Dessin, Paris, FR Tir Groupé, Alain Le Bras space, Nantes, FR
2008 Panorama de la jeune création, Bourges, FR Interview, Union Square Gallery, MFA Building, NYC, USA Atelier Elsa Cayo, Galerie Droite ENSBA Paris, FR
2005 Der Ausländer, Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, DE

Awards & Grants

2019 Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts, FR
2015 Jardin des Sculptures, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Domaine de La Celle, Saint-Cloud, FR
2011 Prix Félix Fénéon, Universités de Paris, FR
2010 Prix Start Hiscox Bourse du département culturel des Pays-Bays, De Ateliers, NL
2008 Bourse Colin Lefrancq, Hunter College, New York, USA Bourse Erasmus, Bauhaus-Universitä, Weimar, DE

Residencies

2019 MUMA - Artist in Residency, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, AU
2018 LVMH - Métiers d’Art, Longarone, IT
2013 Le Vent des Forêts, open space contemporary art center, Lorraine, FR
2013 EKWC, ceramic work center, ‘S-Hertogenbosch, NL

Collections

Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, SP

MAC VAL, Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val de-Marne, FR

FNAC, Centre National des Arts Plastique, FR

FRAC Bretagne, FR

Musée des Beaux Arts deNantes, FR

FMAC Paris, FR

Maison Chloé