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BODIL MANZ AT 80
Bodil Manz in her studio , Denmark , 2018 . Photo credit : Ole Haupt
Bodil Manz at 80 celebrates the internationally recognised Danish ceramist , who has been exhibiting with The Scottish Gallery for over thirty years .
The Gallery is marking her 80th year as part of their wider Wonder Women series of exhibitions this Festival . Bodil Manz is internationally renowned for her slip cast porcelain cylinders , which she decorates in abstract or geometric patterns often on both sides , applied with plain decals . The effect is a pattern on the one side , offset by a shadow of a related pattern on the other .
An artist such as Manz has helped elevate ceramics in recent years and her work is one of the iconic voices within the field .
‘ Producing ceramics is a constant work process , which encompasses practical and technological elements in my work , which occupies the mind and the body . Porcelain fascinates me . Over the last three decades , I have consistently worked with cylindrical shapes in very thin porcelain . I decorate on both the inside and the outside of the shape and forms , and the light which passes through my vessels is an integral part of the work .’
Bodil Manz was born in Copenhagen in 1943 . After graduating from the School of Arts and Craft , Copenhagen in 1965 she went on to study at the Escuela de Disneño y Artesanias in Mexico and Berkeley University in California . She established a studio with her late husband , ceramist Richard Manz , in 1967 in Horve , where she continues to live and work today . Her work is represented in public collections worldwide . In 2007 she was awarded the Grand Prize at the 4th World Ceramic Biennale , Korea , and was shortlisted as one of the finalists for the LOEWE craft prize in 2020 .
The Scottish Gallery is honoured to celebrate her 80th year , which will be followed with a full retrospective of her work in Copenhagen in 2024 . The artist has made a new series for the Festival , where she continues to explore the cylinder form in new and surprising ways . Other
variations of form include harmonious oval bowls and stepped cylindrical vessels . Within the limited shape of the cylinder , the possibilities of variation , new ideas , beauty , function , development of technique and materials provides a constant source of inspiration for the artist . Manz ’ s seemingly fragile , ethereal creations , seductive in their visual poetry and harmony , are made with a highly technical and compositional mastery and are a joy to behold .
Bodil Manz at 80 , The Scottish Gallery 27 July – 26 August 2023 | scottish-gallery . co . uk