SCULPTURE
BIOGRAPHY
Vancouver-based sculptor, Marie Khouri, represents the broad multi-cultural and diverse demographic of Western Canada. Born in Egypt and raised in Lebanon, Khouri has developed a vast range of cultural and historical influences within her practice. With a childhood interrupted during the Lebanese Civil War, Khouri was relocated to Spain, Italy, and Canada, finally settling in Paris where she was classically trained in sculpture at l’École du Louvre. On her return to Vancouver, a retrospective of her life took form in her sculpture, reflecting a passion for innovation and spontaneity.
Khouri’s work resides at the often-tenuous place between art and design, with a close integration of form and function, reminiscent of modernist thinking best epitomized by the Bauhaus School. Despite their formalist impulses, the sculptures she creates are not without feeling. Greatly influenced by Henry Moore’s idea of direct carving, Marie Khouri’s sculptures blend and extend metaphors of language, form, and the body to propose an inextricable link - both political and personal - to a life deeply affected by the complex histories of the Middle East. It is from these histories that her most evocative works emerge, rooted in a profound sense of dislocation and the search for a greater sense of place. Each sculpture is formed through an extensive hands-on process that employs traditional sculpting techniques alongside contemporary innovations in material and building standards. Her timeless and unconstrained forms remain firmly situated in the contemporary moment, pushing the barriers of the medium where the surfaces reveal the entire process and the finished sculpture reveals the evolutionary method by which it was created.
Khouri has created over 25 public artworks worldwide, and her large-scale sculptural work is held in private collections across the globe. This year she was awarded l’Ordre national du Mérite by the French government.
EXHIBITIONS
PAST EXHIBITIONS
2019 The Grand Tour at Abbazia di San Gregorio, Colnaghi Gallery x Chahan Minassian, Venice Biennale, Italy.
2018 BRONZE, Solo Show, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Collective Design Fair, Chahan Gallery, NYC, USA
2017 Splash, Arts Umbrella, Vancouver, Canada
2016 Major Works, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
You and I, TED Conference DREAM, February 15 - 19, Vancouver, Canada
2015 London Design Week, Canada House in England Exhibit, London, England
You and I, Harmony Arts Festival, Organized by the West Vancouver Museum, Canada
FOG Design + Art, represented by Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA
Splash, Arts Umbrella, Vancouver, Canada
2014 Let’s Sit and Talk, Solo Show, Equinox Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
IDS West, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2013 Wearable Sculptures, Amusingold Show, Milan, Italy
Safar/Voyage, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Le Jardin en Reflets, Chahan Minassian for AD Interieurs, Paris, France
2012 ICFF, New York City, USA
Pavilion Art and Design, Paris, France
EDC London Minotti Design, London, England
Compagnie Française de l’Orient et de la Chine, Paris, France
2011 ICFF, New York City, USA
Design Week Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
IDS West, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Histoire d’O, Canada Line Public Art Program, Olympic Station, Vancouver, BC, Canada
The White Show, Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2010 IDS West, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2009 Le Banc, Canada Line Public Art Program, Olympic Station, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Solo Show, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Vancouver Biennale, Vancouver, BC, Canada
IDS West, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Private Show, Seattle, WA, USA
2008 Splash, Arts Umbrella, Vancouver, Canada
Artists in our Midst, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2007 Un Arca Cultural, Mexico City, Mexico
Un Arca Cultural Michoacan, Mexico
Artists in our Midst, Vancouver, BC, Canada
2006 Salon D’Automne, Paris, France
2005 Salon D’Automne, Paris, France
2004 Salon D’Automne, Paris, France
Salon de l’Hotel de Ville, Paris, France
Espace du Louvre, Paris, France
Artcurial, Paris, France
AWARDS & TALKS
2021 The Ordre national du Mérite, awarded by France
2018 UDI Award for Excellence - Public Art Winner - Eyes On The Street, by Concert Properties
2018 Sam Sullivan’s Public Salon, Vancouver, BC
2017 Artist Lecture Series, Liquidity Gallery, Okanagan Falls, BC
2014 Carter Wosk BC Creative Achievement Award - Recipient Furniture Design Award
2012 Western Living Design Award - Industrial Design Winner
2012 Western Living Design Award - Fashion Design Winner
2009 PechaKucha, Volume Seven, Vancouver, BC
CONTACT
MARIE KHOURI STUDIO