Galerie Philia presents Émilie Lemardeley's first museum show as Lumière Sculptée

Galerie Philia is pleased to present Lumière Sculptée (Sculpted Light), the first museum exhibition dedicated to works of French designer and sculptor Émilie Lemardeley. The solo exhibition curated by Ygaël Attali is presented at the Mandet Museum in Riom, France, from June 13, 2026 – January 3, 2027. “Following several years of collaboration with Galerie Philia, including her solo exhibition in Bordeaux and her participation in Floral Echoes, Odes to Mapplethorpe in Zurich, this exhibition marks an important new chapter in the artist's career,” Galerie Philia notes in an official release.

Lumière Sculptée brings the contemporary designer’s sculptural practice into an institutional setting for the first time. Installed throughout the 18th-century architecture of the Mandet Museum, the design exhibition presents a selection of sculptures in blown glass and bronze that explore light as a living material. “Rather than depicting nature, Lemardeley’s works embody its underlying forces: growth, metamorphosis, fluidity and expansion,” the design gallery notes.

Conceived in close dialogue with the museum's historic spaces, the exhibition establishes a relationship between sculpture, architecture and lighting. “Each work responds to the building’s volumes, natural light and historical character, transforming the museum into an environment of shifting reflections, shadows and sensory encounters,” the contemporary design gallery explains.

Featuring product designs from her celebrated series Dryades, Posidoni, Germs and Mouvances, Lumière Sculptée invites visitors to experience sculpture as a living process rather than a fixed object. “More than an exhibition of artworks, it proposes a slower way of looking, one in which perception unfolds through movement, attention and time,” Galerie Philia mentions.