Nato nel 1985 | Netherlands
Sabine Marcelis was born in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, in 1985 and moved with her family to Waihi, New Zealand, at age ten. The natural drama of the country's coastlines, skies, and changing light became an enduring influence on her visual sensibility. She studied industrial design at Victoria University of Wellington before returning to the Netherlands and completing her degree at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2011. That same year, she established Studio Sabine Marcelis in Rotterdam. From the outset, her practice centered on close collaboration with fabricators and material specialists, allowing her to explore how transparency, reflection, color, and illumination can alter the perception of an object or space.
Marcelis works across furniture, lighting, objects, and site-specific installations, often using resin, glass, stone, and metal in highly resolved compositions. Her projects range from the Candy Cube and Totem lights to No Fear of Glass at the Barcelona Pavilion and Colour Rush! for the Vitra Design Museum. She has collaborated with Vitra, Established & Sons, Fendi, Celine, Dior, IKEA, OMA, and other international names, bringing the same material precision to collectible design and large-scale commissions. Her work is held by institutions including MoMA, the Stedelijk Museum, and the Vitra Design Museum. Marcelis was named Designer of the Year by Wallpaper in 2020, Monocle and EDIDA in 2023, and Dezeen in 2024.
