ALICE RIEHL
By combining French decorative arts motifs, organic imagery, and contemporary motivations into visual poetry, French artist Alice Riehl’s porcelain wall murals exist in a liminal space between the natural and constructed worlds.
Seduced by porcelain’s softness, unpredictability, and capacity to reflect light, Riehl began training at French Ceramics Institute in Sèvres in 2003. The focus on hand modeling as her primary practice creates a freedom that opens expanding possibilities of expression, the relationship between the artist and the material becoming a fertile conversation. Porcelain has the peculiar property of distortion during firing, generating gentle shifts to the shape. This produces some complexity, but also breathes life into the unique sculptures.
Driven by the desire to widen her sculptural work, Riehl began translating her visual imagery into large scale murals in 2010. Heavily influenced by the large Middle Age tapestries prevalent throughout Europe, her works become a crossover between textile and porcelain. The surface detail of her representational subjects is substituted by grafted textures of lace, organic matter, and other delicate and disparate materials pressed into the soft clay resulting in an imagined form, something but familiar but surprising. Employing movement and asymmetry to compose imaginary panoramas, her works are composed
of obvious, yet often abstract, references. Swaths of flora, botanicals, and oceanic life crawl across expansive surfaces equally fit for residential or public spaces.
Carefully considering each handmade detail, Riehl achieves a vivid harmony. Her amplified scale gives way to a surreal, visual cognitive experience. If perspective is needed to get the whole story, numerous details emerge when getting closer to the piece, from subtle touches of glaze to meticulously modeled elements, creating a sense of intimacy with the artwork.
Alice Riehl lives and works in Paris, France. Her works can be found in prestigious corporate and retail interiors, such as the magnificent Chaumet flagship high-jewelry store on place Vendôme in Paris, and the Chäteau Dauzac in the Bordeaux area in France.
Photo: Masaki Okumura
The inception of Riehl’s monumental Alter Ego wall installation took shape during the lock-down of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. During this time, many city residents found themselves confined to cramped apartments, and it was trees that provided them with their sole tangible link to nature. These trees provided a glimpse of spring’s arrival and the cyclical pattern of seasons during a time marked by significant turmoil and uncertainty.
Fascinated by the unique aerial roots and extraordinary qualities of the banyan tree, Alter Ego emerged as a representation of a single tree with two distinct trunks. One trunk radiates with vitality, adorned with branches, leaves, and fruit, while the other hovers on the brink of decline, shedding leaves but also nurturing a cluster of roots striving to expand. These two extremes mirrored the inherent duality within each of us: the “self” and the “other self.” This concept was reminiscent of Arthur Rimbaud’s famous phrase “Je est un autre”(I is someone else), highlighting the multitude of inner voices we all possess. Through Alter Ego, Riehl emphasized humanity’s tendency to admire the fragile beauty of nature even as we endanger it, revealing our inability to safeguard and cherish what we hold most dear and admire.
Taking a step back to view the installation from a distance reveals a circular motion emanating from the entire work. In this way, Alter Ego exudes a glimmer of hope, symbolizing the remarkable resilience of life encapsulated in the astonishing adaptability and regenerative abilities of plants.
Alter Ego, 2022
Porcelain
100h x 137w inches
Masque, 2021
Porcelain
67h x 145w inches
Riehl’s collection of intricate swirling sculptural murals, known as Masques, began during her frequent strolls along the Breton coastline. It was there that she observed the ever-shifting tidal backwash, where sea foam delicately etched lacelike patterns on the sand and rocks. These patterns, born from the perpetual motion of the sea, are in a constant state of change and renewal.
Masques embodies a quintessential aspect of Riehl’s artistic style. She skillfully molds and assembles inert porcelain pieces to convey a sense of dynamic movement, a vibrant surge of life, all while creating a stunning overarching design. In this way, Masques serves as a tribute to a specific moment frozen in time—an image of nature’s intricate patterns captured in stillness, just before they retreat and begin anew.
The name Masques draws a connection to carnival masks worn during festive celebrations, as these masks occasionally seem to fleetingly materialize within the delicate contours of the foamy patterns.
Photo: Yvan Moreau
Autoportrait encompasses a collection of wall installations featuring enigmatic creatures that are a blend of both vertebrate and plant life –peacock-magnolias.
Throughout history of art, portraiture has held a distinct and codified status, symbolizing the social stature of its subjects. A full-length portrait, for instance, was a symbol of power, emphasizing the subject’s attire and possessions. Within this genre, self-portraits often reveal aspects of the subject’s character and intimacy, carefully chosen by the artist. In the contemporary milieu, selfies have emerged as the dominant rejuvenation of this timehonored tradition.
In Autoportrait de Couple, two peacocks create an illusion of romantic partnership. One confidently displays its splendid tail, engaging in a courtship dance that sends ripples of magnolia blossoms suspended in mid-air, injecting a sense of fluidity into the composition. The second peacock moves gracefully ahead of its partner, its long azure tail trailing behind like an elegant ribbon.
Autoportrait de Couple, 2022
Porcelain
98h x 137w inches
The scene is framed by delicate gray ivy branches, evoking the impression of a tapestry’s frieze or a filter applied to a smartphone photograph. Both peacocks assume alluring poses, directing their attention towards each other and, most importantly, the observer.
In a world where visual images dominate, a photograph serves as the ultimate form of proof. However, with advancing technology, the distinction between reality and imagination becomes increasingly blurred. Selfies offer an avenue for reinventing one’s life, infusing it with wonder, experimenting with different personas. In this narrative, the peacocks partake in the intricate dance of love, sharing their story with the world, in anticipation of evoking a response that amplifies their sense of existence.
Porcelain
Winding and ambiguous, the Lianes murals draw a blooming path.
Within the plant world climbing varieties are among Riehl’s most enduring fascination. Their dynamism, their ability to adapt to their environment in order to grow, and the feeling of energy they give off as they spread create a feeling of freedom and strength, but also sometimes of vulnerability, as these species are so vigorous that they can feel invasive.
In the various compositions of the Lianes series of wall installations, three elements are repeated to occupy the space on the wall: the trunk, which evolves in unbridled convolutions, the leaves, which spread out to catch the light, and the flowers, which punctuate the whole.
The artist was inspired here by the Jade Creeper, a tropical variety whose clusters of green flowers evoke bird-like silhouettes. She has imagined her own composite species, resolutely ambiguous, leaving the viewer to his or her own judgment. This is the first work in which Riehl has opted for this equivocal hybridization of plant and animal, a process she would later use for the Autoportrait series.
Lianes, 2022
41h x 41w inches
Private Commission, Taiwan
Travels nurture the artist’s dreams and imagination. Captivated by the tangles of mangrove roots she discovered near the water’s edge during excursions throughout Thailand, Riehl wanted to convey the sensation of springing up and taking root, the life impulse felt in these calm, sometimes stagnant waters. Atypically she has added long, stylized banana leaves that form flat areas of porcelain. Renouncing her usual openwork forms of lace, here she uses a bold over-scaled facsimile, as if to underline the strength and presence of the vegetation conquering the slightest space left by humans.
An awe-inspiring plant that is sometimes perceived as hostile, the mangrove is the symbol of a space where the plant kingdom takes center stage, a rich, complex and fragile ecosystem that we must take care of. By placing it at eye level on the walls, Riehl seeks to magnify it, to underline its splendor and crucial role.
Mangrove, 2022
Porcelain 60h x 95w inches
Trésor consists of a pair of porcelain wall installations directly influenced by Riehl’s explorations along various shorelines worldwide. The Trésor wall sculptures serve as a fusion of two realms united by their connection to the ocean. They also share a commonality in the captivating abstract forms they exhibit, observable when we pause to examine the elements, whether they are massive or minuscule, that nature presents to us.
The artist finds immense joy in extended beach walks, where she observes the ebb and flow of waves and the bustling life along the shore. While exploring the northern-western coast of the United States near the Olympic Peninsula, Riehl was profoundly moved by the massive driftwood stumps that wash ashore from the Pacific Ocean. These majestic pieces of wood, shaped by the relentless forces of water and the surf, left a lasting impression. Interestingly, these silhouettes of driftwood brought to her mind another natural wonder she had encountered: the astonishing patterns created by tiny grains of sand, meticulously arranged by miniature crabs in Thailand.
Tresor I, 2022
Porcelain
47h x 37.50w inches
Tresor II, 2022
Porcelain 50h x 50w inches
In the Lignage series, the artworks reflect the hereditary traits of a lineage, occupying a unique space where family portraits and family trees converge. Within these compositions, the intertwining of human bodies and overgrown vegetation symbolizes the interactions among members of the same lineage. These sculptures achieve an overall sense of harmony, featuring asymmetrical arrangements punctuated by foliage and blossoms.
Upon closer examination of the figurative trunk within the family tree, one can discern hints of interacting figures. These anthropomorphic body/trunk amalgamations, entwined in a manner that leaves one unsure whether they are in conflict or embrace, appear to literally emerge from the wall, depicting scenes from a complex and uncertain family narrative.
In illustrating the strength of familial bonds, Riehl drew inspiration from the work of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, renowned for the tension and potency conveyed in his art. Rodin’s masterpiece, La porte de l’Enfer or “Hell’s Door,” a colossal structure adorned with writhing, tormented figures, exhibits various levels of relief, the mingling of bodies, and exposed ground areas, creating a dizzying and overwhelming impact on viewers. Similar to Riehl, Rodin predominantly employed his hands in his work, with the physical imprint of the artist often visible on the surface of his sculptures.
A quote from Rodin,“The sculptor must learn to reproduce the surface, which means all that vibrates on the surface, soul, love, passion life… sculpture is thus the art of hollows and mounds, not of smoothness, or even polished planes,” echoes as a fundamental principle in Riehl’s extensive body of work.
Lignage, 2022
Porcelain
Size by Commission
Lignage II, 2022 Porcelain Size by commission
With the Fugue series, Alice Riehl continues her exploration of Asian flora observed during her travels. Fascinated by the strange beauty of withered lotus leaves in the ponds and reservoirs of urban spaces in Taiwan and Macau, she has studied their different stages of life to compose a harmonious and intriguing whole.
More known for its flowers in many traditional representations, the lotus is here magnified by its leaves. Faded or blossoming, they form an ensemble that resembles notes and eighth notes on a musical score. The word fugue obviously refers to the musical genre, but also to escape, like an invitation to travel.
Initially conceived for a music lover with a passion for Asian culture, the work evokes the flights of the spirit, through exoticism, but also the encounter with other cultures that art and music allow us. By modeling lotus leaves at different stages of their evolution, the artist also evokes the passing of time and the cycles to which each of us is subject.
Fugue, 2022
Porcelain
39.37h x 66.93w inches
TODD MERRILL STUDIO
Todd Merrill Studio represents an international group of established and emerging artists, each with a singular artistic vision and unprecedented point of view. In creating unique works of collectible design, each artist takes a hands-on approach that intersects contemporary design, fine art, traditional craft techniques, and pioneering innovation.
Individually, through meticulous craftsmanship and rigorous studio experimentation, each has developed leading-edge, proprietary methods that break previously set inherent limitations of conventional materials like wood, metal, plaster, concrete, ceramics, glass, and resin. Their intimate studio approach fosters an atmosphere of creativity where the work rendered significantly bears the hand of the artist.
Collectively the artists are helping to create a new visual vocabulary that advances long-held, established artistic boundaries. Their dynamic, one-of-a-kind, and frequently groundbreaking works contribute to today’s increasingly relevant gray space between art and design.
With the gallery’s support, the artists’ works have entered the collections of major private and public patrons and prestigious museums including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Museum of
Art and Design in New York; the High Museum in Atlanta; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London; the Carnegie Museum of Art in Philadelphia, the Houston Museum of Fine Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
In 2000, Todd Merrill opened Todd Merrill Antiques which quickly became renowned for its glamorous and eclectic mix of twentieth-century furniture and lighting. The pioneering gallery was one of the of the first to promote modernist and postmodernist American studio artisans including Paul Evans, Phillip Lloyd Powell, George Nakashima, Karl Springer, James Mont, Tommi Parzinger, among others.
In 2008, Rizzoli published Merrill’s “Modern Americana: Studio Furniture from High Craft to High Glam”, the first ever authoritative examination of the great studio furniture makers and designers who, from 1940 thru the 1990s defined American high style. To celebrate the tenth anniversary, in 2018 Rizzoli published an expanded edition, adding 60 pages to his original book. This survey of the period continues with two massive additional chapters focused on Women Makers and Showrooms. After the publication of Modern Americana in 2008, Merrill began to shift the focus of the gallery and started the Studio Contemporary program which has today become his primary focus.
