One to Watch: Ceramicist Marion Selma Gamba

Designer Marion Selma Gamba’s eye for movement carried her through a decade-long career as a fashion designer working for brands like Chloé, Balenciaga and Aritzia. But a newfound love for hand-built ceramics has taken her in a very different direction. “I was doing ceramics on the side, taking night classes at community centres,” Gamba recalls. Unlike the stressful, fast-paced world of fashion, she says, ceramics offered an environment she didn’t feel judged in. “It was just about emotion and creativity,” says Gamba.

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic, the designer launched her ceramics brand, A Deumain. “À demain means ‘see you tomorrow’ in French,” she explains, “but to me it also means looking to the future. It’s sort of a reflection, thinking about what is next and how we can make life better.”

Her sculptures focus on fluidity and movement with organic shapes and a textural feel. “Art and design are very connected together. I create bridges between disciplines and my world,” explains Gamba. Her new line of free-flowing bowls highlights this connection, and hearkens back to her fashion roots. “I wanted a sculptural object that is bold and curvy but feels light, like fabric does,” she says.

Gamba’s goal is to invoke an emotional response through her abstract but functional sculptures. “I believe that objects bring some meaning to people, and right now what we need is emotion,” she says. She uses two types of stoneware clay to create her organic pieces, but paramount to their unique look are the glazes that she makes herself. No two objects are exactly the same. “It’s a dialogue between the material, the shape I have in mind and myself,” Gamba explains. “The forms I create are organic and sculptural—in a way, they mirror the body and its movement.”

MORE ONES TO WATCH: Interior Designer and Textile Artist Destiny Seymour