Coral Royal, mixed media sculpture on drinking can

Stephanie Kilgast is a French artist, originally from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and now based in Vannes, France. The artist’s current body of work centres on sculptures that combine organic forms with discarded man-made materials and detritus, expressing the tension and symbiosis between the natural world and human production. 

Last Glow, mixed media sculpture on tin can

Despite the topical and sometimes heavy subject matter, Stephanie’s works have a light, expressive air about them -- this is helped by the saturated colour schemes that the artist favours. Some of the artist’s recent works feature sculptural growths affixed to polished, unlabeled aluminum cans, the sculptural elements contrasting the stark aluminum in vibrant shades of blue, green, red, and orange. 

I like how Stephanie likens her artistic process to growth. The artist often works through an intuitive process, selecting a general colour scheme but mostly building up forms as she goes along, molding floral and fungal aesthetics with equal parts creativity and scientific realism. The contrast reminds me of works by Eva Lys Champagne.

I Scream for Nature, epoxy clay, polymer clay, acrylics on thrifted plastic ice cream cup