Quebec’s internationally renowned ceramic artist Pascale Girardin is bringing two striking works to Las Vegas’ upcoming HD Expo. Billed as North America’s premier showcase of hospitality design, HD Expo will take place from May 2-4, with Girardin’s architectural ceramics granted a prominent place in the three-day event.
Girardin is best known for architectural installations made up of hundreds or even thousands of individually crafted pieces that come together in larger-than-life compositions. Her work can be found around the world in luxury retail, restaurant and hospitality spaces, for clients such as the Four Seasons, Peninsula, Nobu and Harry Winston.
For this year’s HD Expo at Mandalay Bay, the artist unveils a new original installation that will take the form of a lush alcove. Bloom (seen above) will be assembled exclusively for the event using suspended glazed, unglazed and gold-lustre ceramic botanicals set against a verdant backdrop. Within the booth, visitors can also explore Girardin’s smaller-scale personal artworks. Each of her one-of-a-kind vases and clay benches are wheel-thrown and hand embellished in nuanced brushstrokes whose colouration evokes stone, water and sand’s rich tonalities.
Bloom serves as a counterpoint to another new work from Girardin’s studio: Desert Breeze (seen below), on permanent display in the lobby of Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas, located on the the first floor of the Mandalay Bay Tower.
Here, Girardin has created the illusion of wildflowers set adrift on a gentle wind, evoking the austere vegetation of the Mojave Desert. Each of the nearly 500 flowers, petals and leaves, which flow gracefully across the three walls of the hotel’s grand staircase, was created by hand in delicate white bone china so that no two pieces are alike. Desert Breeze is destined to become a focal point for the hotel and a timeless photographic backdrop from which to capture guests’ milestones and celebrations.
Pascale Girardin is a Montreal artist who has contributed to the dynamism of contemporary ceramics through her large-scale architectural installations. Luxury, harmony and balance are the quintessential qualities which define her unique artworks. The exclusive spaces that she invests are inspired by the expression of pure form and her creations subtly highlight our essential relationship with the world around us. Whether her works are suspended in mid-air, gracing a wall or floating in water, they always evoke nature’s ubiquitous presence and organic structure.