In Dialogue: Philippe Malouin and Sofia Stevi

This exhibition brings together new works by British-Canadian designer Philippe Malouin and Greek artist Sofia Stevi, exploring the contrast between structure and fluidity, control and spontaneity. Through their practices, they highlight the tension between hardness and softness—both in material and meaning.

Philippe Malouin’s practice exists at the intersection of craftsmanship, sculpture, and industrial design, reflected in a new series of ceramics produced during his 2024 residency at La Becque in Switzerland. The ceramic pieces function as studies in gravity: Malouin experimented with shaving clay using various tools, allowing the fragments to fall into predetermined forms, guided by the forces of gravity. The exhibition also includes a selection of Steel Works which serve as display structures for the ceramics.

Sofia Stevi introduces a new body of paintings that act as portals between reality and dreamscapes. In her fluid, warm-toned compositions, bodies, flowers, and animals merge with clouds, vapors, and streams, creating a visual language of memory and imagination. Patterns and objects drawn from personal recollections coexist with everyday life, while feminine figures—both whole and fragmented—embody shifting states of being.

Malouin, a British-Canadian designer, set up his studio in 2008 after working for English designer Tom Dixon. His diverse portfolio includes tables, rugs, chairs, lights, art objects and installations. He has recently won the Wallpaper* Magazine ‘designer of the year’ award and has also been named President of the Jury at Villa Noaille’s Design Parade in France. Philippe Malouin solo exhibition “Steel Works” was hosted at The Breeder in November 2021 and was awarded with material innovation by Wallpaper Awards.

Sofia Stevi (b. 1982, Athens) lives and works in Athens. Stevi has had two solo shows at The Breeder: “When we start to understand the world” (2023) and “Lizzie & Laura” (2017). She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2022). In 2013, together with the artist Bobby Dowler, she found Fokidos Art Space that occupied her Athens apartment where they exhibited Greek and international artists as well as held performances and poetry nights.