Olivia Cognet

Since moving to Los Angeles in 2016, French artist and designer Olivia Cognet has focused on ceramics as the fertile medium through which she expresses her boundless creativity. With the freedom this material affords to explore every type of shape and size, she creates monumental bas-reliefs and giant totems as well as chairs, tables, lamps and vases.
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These unique pieces, handmade by the artist in her studio, all share the same high aesthetic, abstract and graphic standards. She draws inspiration from the lights and shadows of the landscapes of California, its modernist architecture and intense nature.

Infusing a modern take on the great tradition of decorative arts, her works are both functional and powerfully evocative. Olivia Cognet grew up in Nice on the Côte d’Azur, studied at the Villa Arson and was nourished by the brilliant masters from the school of Vallauris, from Picasso to Roger Capron; for her, ceramics are a key element of architecture.

She starts by exploring ideas on paper, before moving to stoneware, using a local clay that comes in three natural shades. Her designs showcase the power of contrasts; her minimal, geometric lines are interwoven with a sensual and organic vocabulary.

The austere aesthetic of rough clay is heightened by the elegance of the crackle glazes, which generate singular effects. Elsewhere, ethereal excrescences defy the laws of gravity.

Day after day, guided by her intuition, Olivia Cognet reinvents the poetic experience of creation, fashioning work through the purity of the material. This is the magic of the artisan, combined with the promise of vibrant beauty, to enhance everyday life.
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Selected Exhibitions

Design Miami Los Angeles Exhibition

Design Miami Los Angeles

May 16 - May 20, 2024
Smooth Vast Body of Water Exhibition

Smooth Vast Body of Water

John Hogan, Olivia Cognet & Casey McCafferty
September 8 - October 18, 2023
Momentary Pause Exhibition

Momentary Pause

February 17 - March 25, 2022

C.V.

Exhibitions

2024   “Design Miami Los Angeles” – The Future Perfect, Los Angeles, CA

2024   PAD – Paris, FR

2024   Hermes – Geneva, CH

2024   “Le Monde” – Paris, FR

2023   “Smooth Vast Body of Water” – The Future Perfect, New York, NY

2022   “Momentary Pause” – The Future Perfect, Los Angeles, CA

2021   “Clay Manifesto” – Galerie Jag, Paris, FR

2021   “Collective” – 1818, Sag Harbor, NY

2020   “VALLAURIS” – CLAY APPARTAMENTO, Paris, FR

Education and Training

2003   Villa Arson EPIAR

2002   BTS “stylisme de mode”

2000   Baccalauréat of Applied Arts, Antibes

Artist Residence

2021   “VALLAURIS” – Le Musée de la Poterie, Paris, FR

2020   “VALLAURIS” – A.I.R Résidence, Paris, FR