MANE PHÉLY

Born in 1965 in Nogent-sur-Seine, Mane Phély works and live in Olivet, France. Even at a young age, the earth she kneads in her hands and the trees surrounding her evoke a deep creative excitement within her. This connection with nature nurtures her genuine desire to create, her longing to shape materials, to engage in a dialogue with them, and to transform them through her work. 

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2014 marks a turning point in her artistic journey. While in residence at Espace Solidor in Cagnes-sur-Mer, dedicated to contemporary jewelry, she discovers cardboard, a humble material that gradually reveals its complexity under her fingertips: its flexibility, resilience, malleability, and robustness. In her Provencal studio, Mane Phély's artistic gesture becomes more defined as she hones her technique. She joins the "La Créative" Crafts Boutique in Biot in 2017 and opens her own studio-boutique in 2018. That same year, she exhibits at the Kultur Reverenz Gallery in Basel. Leveraging techniques acquired through her jewelry work, she creates unique pieces, elegant sculptural jewelry she calls her "wearable sculptures."

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Mane Phély concludes her residency in 2019. Her move to her studio in Olivet, on the banks of the Loiret River, marks a new phase in her work. There, she continues her conversation with materials, seeking to elevate and transcend them, to unveil all their unsuspected qualities. She works on large-scale wall sculptures, evoking the nature that inspires her: an ancestral, geological mineral nature, a lush vegetation caught in infinite cycles – volcanic lands, mysterious forests, springtime flora.