What is the inspiration behind your artist journey? What is your link to Monaco as a Monegasque citizen, artist working and living abroad? Would you like to return to Monaco with a specific art project?
I don’t come from a family of artists per sé, but with grandfathers who both made wooden furniture, I’ve always had an inherent respect for materials. My father used to paint, my mother used to write, my grandfather ended up an architect, but growing up in Monaco where too few galleries and museums were then available, it was only in London that I truly started developing as an artist, around like-minded friends and sculptors. I am now witnessing Monaco slowly welcoming those spaces I so longed for as a child and have always had it in the back of my mind to come back home one day with a project. Time will tell.
If you were to choose 3 most important events in your life and picture them in numbers, which number would they be?
1 – I was born on 1st February 1987. Not only was I born on the first of a month, but if you were to add up all numbers of my date of birth, you would still end up with 1.
1919 – My first significant show in London curated by James Putnam at Ronchini Gallery was entitled The Uncanny, after Freud’s essay published in 1919, a number also relevant to my first ever museum show which opened on 19 Nov 19 at Museo Federico Silva in Mexico, the only museum in Latin America dedicated to Sculpture.
27 – is the date my husband proposed, which consequently also happens to be the address of our first home in Mexico.
Your favourite museum?
The Museum of Anthropology in Mexico (@mnamexico), the Tate Modern in London (@tate), and the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco (@oceanomonaco). All three of which are regular places of pilgrimage for me.
What does beauty mean to you?
Beauty lies in the tension between recognition and incomprehension.
Beauty in an artwork activates in the moment it is in contact with the world.
Your favourite medium you like to work with?
I have a profound admiration for marble, for the hundreds of millions of years it took for it to form. Working with it acts as a humble reminder of the mere fleeting moment of our own existence on earth.
How has the pandemic affected the way your work / show your work?
I have had to adapt to working from home. I started making maquettes with all sorts of recycled household materials which I have later poured into bronze. Thanks to London Bronze Editions (@londonbronze), who selected my work as part of an Open Call, an edition is now available via www.londonbronzeeditions.com
I have also worked on my first jewellery project, a collaboration with 15a Studio (@15a_studio) who have cast two small wax sculptures of mine into a limited-edition silver, gold and black rhodium earrings available via www.15a_studio.com
Aside from traditional sculpting techniques, I have also started learning 3-D computer drawing. This allows me the flexibility of developing my work from home while collaborating with fabricators remotely who bring it to life, from the digital to the physical.
Plans for a new show?
In February 2021, Bo Lee Gallery (@boleegallery) has planned a trio exhibition In Conversation: Part I at Beckenham Place Mansion, Beckenham, UK, alongside sculptors Clare Burnett (@clareeburnett) and Benjamin Cohen (@benjamin___cohen).
2021 will also see a variety of exciting projects with Masa Galeria (@masagaleria), namely a group show curated by Mario Garcia Torres (@mariogarciatorres) in March in Mexico City, as well as a show in Los Angeles at Dries Van Noten’s Little House (@driesvannoten) in the Summer.
My work has also recently been selected for an online exhibition, an initiative by Aora (@aoraspace).
Your favourite building, architecturally speaking.
Xavier Corbero’s house on the outskirts of Barcelona. The infinity of arches makes one feel right inside a de Chirico painting. Xavier was an incredible mind, a sculptor and eccentric man with a clear vision whose home was his greatest masterpiece. I was lucky enough to work as Art Director, alongside Film Director Nathalie Biancheri and Executive Producer Natalie Kadoorie, on his last interview before passing away the following year, the result of which is a poignant and intimate portrait of the man himself, which you can watch on Nowness (@nowness) via https://www.nowness.com/story/xavier-corbero-portrait-of-an-artist-in-winter
This interview is part of Rosemont Art Advisory's monthly newsletter. To receive our newsletter, or for more information, please contact Karolina Blasiak, Art Advisor at k.blasiak@rosemont-mc.com
1- Adeline 4, Mexico © Devin Blaskovich, 2020
2- Demeters Pods -® Adeline de Monseignat, 2018
3- A Escala Inhumana, Still (MED) -® Adeline de Monseignat, 2020
4- In The Flesh II -® Adeline de Monseignat, 2015
5- Block Extraction 3 -® Adeline de Monseignat
Adeline de Monseignat (b.1987) is a contemporary artist/ sculptor who lives and works between London and Mexico City. Her work translates an interest in psychology, mythology, urban legends, anthropology and other literary sources which refer to birth, fertility, anthropomorphism and the uncanny. Through the process of sculpting, the artist aims to provide physicality and functionality to such intangible concepts. Adeline works primarily with organic, mineral, sensual, strong yet vulnerable materials such as fur, glass, textiles, steel and marble that aim to echo the human body’s qualities, vulnerabilities and potentialities.
Education: BA in Language and Culture, UCL (2009), Art Foundation, Slade School of Fine Art (2010), MA in Fine Art, City & Guilds of London Art School (2011). Selected Solo Shows: O, Ronchini, London (2018), L'Attesa, Exchiesetta, Polignano a Mare, Italy (2017), Home, Ronchini, London (2014). Selected Group Shows: Recover/Uncover, Masa Galeria, Mexico City (2020), Fire Ladders, Museo de Geologia UNAM, Mexico City (2020), Synergia, Museo Federico Silva, San Luis Potosi, Mexico (2019), Skulpturenpark, Kandlhofer, Vienna (2018 and 2019), Sisyphus in Retrograde, London UK (2019), Pabellon de Las Escaleras, The Chimney x Guadalajara90210, Mexico City MX (2019), Fibra, Von Goetz, London UK (2019), Through the Looking Glass, Cob Gallery (2018), Polarities, Totah, NYC (2018), Synergia, GAM, CDMX (2018), Cure3, Bonhams, London (2018), Contemporary Sculpture Fulmer (2017), Force of Nature, Mile End Art Pavilion, London (2017), House of Penelope, Gallery 46, London (2017), I am NOT tino sehgal, Nahmad Projects, London (2016), Beyond Borders, Blain Southern, London (2016), UK/raine, Saatchi Gallery, London (2015), Time to Hit the Road, Leila Heller, New York (2014), Articulate, Victoria Miro (2013), The London Project, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (2013), The Uncanny, Ronchini, London (2013), The Future Can Wait, Victoria House, London (2013), The Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London (2012), Yellow Wallpaper, Cob Gallery (2012), The Catlin Art Prize (2012), Dividing Line, High House Gallery, Oxfordshire UK (2012). Selected Prizes: Royal Society of Sculptors Bursary Awards (2013), Fack West London Art Prize (2013), The Catlin Art Prize (Visitor's Vote Prize Winner, 2012), Arcadia Missa Gallery Prize (2011). Selected Screenings: Freud Museum, London (2016), Exeter Phoenix (2016), Chimney Art Festival, NYC (2017)