Barbodoigts, engobed ceramic, 2018.
Florentine and Alexandre Lamarche-Ovize have been working as a duo since 2006. Their practice explicitly refers to the 1860s Art & Crafts movement, which rejected the distinction between art and traditional crafts. Lamarche-Ovize’s favorite media are drawing and ceramics, this latter considered as an organic extension of the first. By combining an artisanal approach to art with a variety of historical, vernacular and pop cultures references, Lamarche-Ovize produce an oeuvre they like to consider as ‘grotesque’. Best known for their barbodoigt, a series of hand-made vases inspired by Mexican traditional ceramics tecnique, but decorated with motifs directly retrieved from their atelier, they also work with murals and collages. Among their favorite topics are landscapes and still life which they approach with a variety of styles and registers.