Sabine Marcelis Brings Resin, Glass and Light to Her First Museum Show
Eight lava lamps, each almost three metres tall, glow between mirror walls in Zurich. They belong to Light and Color, the first museum exhibition of Dutch designer Sabine Marcelis, on show at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich until 4 April 2027.
Marcelis, born in 1985, works with translucent materials such as glass, resin and natural stone, and turns them into objects that catch, bend and reflect light. The exhibition at the museum’s Toni-Areal site opened on 30 October 2026. It combines groups of works from recent years with light pieces made especially for the show, together with samples and material studies that show how she gets there. The studio’s own work can be found at Studio Sabine Marcelis.
Mass That Feels Weightless
What runs through the work is a contradiction. Many pieces are large and heavy, yet they read as light, because the material lets light pass through or throws it back. The museum describes design, art and architecture as one unity in her minimal pieces. The scenography is kept reduced, so the lights, mirrors and immersive rooms carry the show and the line between object and room starts to blur.
From Series Product to Room
Two of the installations start from products made with manufacturers. For IKEA, Marcelis developed around 20 objects for the VARMBLIXT collection, with the circle as recurring motif; its ring-shaped lamp became the best known. In Zurich, 125 of these lamps line a mirror wall with a colour gradient, forming an eleven-metre light tunnel that visitors walk through. A mass-produced lamp becomes a single spatial experience.
The Mathmos Column Lava Lamp grew out of a long collaboration with Mathmos, the maker of the lava lamp invented in 1963. Marcelis turned it into a column of almost three metres. For the exhibition, eight of them stand between mirror walls, so the room seems to stretch endlessly while the wax moves as a fluid, changing body of light.
Water, Sun and Colour
Sunbeam Captured, made with Boris Acket, deals with something more fleeting: sunlight on water. A thin layer of water is moved by mechanically generated waves while a travelling light source follows the course of the sun. Coloured reflections fill the room, strengthened by a mirror that shifts from blue to orange, after the colour temperatures of daylight.
For architects and interior designers, the samples and studies are perhaps the most useful part. They show how resin, glass and stone are tested for colour, thickness and translucency before they become furniture, lights or room-sized pieces.
The exhibition runs at Pfingstweidstrasse 96 in Zurich until 4 April 2027, supported by IKEA Switzerland. Marcelis will give an artist talk at the museum on 26 November 2026. More work with light-transmitting materials is collected in the Translucency channel.
Source: Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.