ANNICK IBSEN
French artist Annick Ibsen came to art by a nomadic existence while growing up, while working, studying finance, and not finally, but thankfully, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to the States, for Ibsen discovered ceramics when she relocated to Des Moines, Iowa. Early in her art career, she focused on painting, and was inspired mostly by realism. She now works mostly in three dimensions. Ibsen rolls out slabs and makes patterns; and as if puzzling them together, each individual template becomes part of an entirety. Ibsens’s sculptures are hollow, and the inside gives integrity to the piece as much as its exterior appearance. She uses stoneware with a high content of grog that permits her to create volume by layering and building on hundreds of small pieces. Ibsen sees the clay as vulnerable and in need of mending, thus becoming an endeavor that is filled with care and commitment.
I am interested in giving permanence to what keeps evolving, the dimensional shift that occurs in creating a work of art—from the void of space to the simple line that anchors the start of a movement, to the surface on which light bounces off form, and finally to the all three-dimensional occupied by the positive space around which we move physically and emotionally. I also like to reverse the 3D effect by creating monotypes based on my sculptures and drawing the viewer back into the negative space, the dimension that escapes the arrested form. Recently, I have been exploring shadows by way of how shapes express themselves in 3D and in print.
Ibsen’s dedication to the balance of two in one and the natural cleaving of all space, brings to mind a quote attributed to Van Gogh, “Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” Her work reflects that process. She rolls out slabs, makes patterns, and puts them together like a puzzle. In turn, each individual piece becomes part of the entirety of the whole. While she focuses her time now in Des Moines, she has also studied in Illinois and Paris. Ibsen’s work has been shown in numerous galleries in Des Moines, Chicago, and many more cities across the United States.
