Architektur | Pascale Girardin
Pascale Girardin - Explores Human-Scale Creation in the Heart of Exceptional Quebec Residences Montreal Canada
| 2025-06-17 |     |
Internationally acclaimed for her monumental installations seen in hotels, cultural centres, and public spaces, ceramic artist Pascale Girardin is now exploring new, more intimate and locally grounded territory by creating unique pieces for private residences in Quebec. This natural progression in her practice refocuses her artistic approach around gestures, materials, and proximity.
“Until very recently, residential projects had not been part of my practice. We would receive an occasional studio commission, but it wasn’t our primary work,” Ms. Girardin said. Her focus was large-scale works for public spaces, often abroad. The upheavals stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic led her to redefine her approach. “People started to invest in their homes, to seek beauty around them, close to them. For our part, we took some time to refresh our online presence, document our work, and publicize it better. The intersection of those two initiatives is where we saw some new possibilities emerging.”
Creating for living
Since then, Pascale Girardin has received a growing number of local commissions. Several of her recent projects embody her evolving practice, allowing her to explore creative territory more closely linked to domestic life. The new works include a mural depicting a cloud and delicate flowers, integrated into the entrance of a modern home, as well as a mantelpiece in handmade ceramic tiles in shades of deep blue with shifting reflections. “Residential work requires a different – more intimate, more immediate – relationship with the work,” Ms. Girardin explains, adding that texture, finish, and softness are critical elements. “Even when the gesture is a powerful one, I make sure the surface remains smooth, almost fluid, inviting the eye to glide over the piece. It’s a way to make the work welcoming, alive, in harmony with the space.”
This custom work, conceived as an intimate dialogue with the architectural space, draws upon another form of creativity. Not surprisingly, it sometimes includes a functional dimension – but the artistic aspect remains central. For the mantelpiece, for example, the bas-relief emerged from a technical exploration of clay extrusion: an approach in which curiosity, playfulness, and creativity join forces with expertise at the intersection of fine craftsmanship and innovation. “The enamels for these tiles are not the result of a simple aesthetic choice; they are the product of fifteen years of research and development,” the artist notes. “Each nuance, each reflection is the result of painstaking experimentation done in the studio.”
Art at the heart of life
Beyond materials, the purpose of the work has also changed. In public spaces, an installation is passed, observed from an active point of view. At home, it is integrated and becomes a regular part of daily life. A residential work is part of a family’s story, accompanying its life and sometimes even becoming the starting point for a new chapter.
This return to the private sphere reflects a cultural evolution experienced by Ms. Girardin. For her, it is clear that there is real enthusiasm in today’s Quebec for collecting art. What has changed is the emergence of a new culture of design and living space, driven by a desire to integrate art into private spaces – not to display it, but to feel it. And that transformation does not depend on the scale of the works: a small piece – a vase, a wall element – can be enough to transform a space. The point isn’t luxury, but connection with materials and emotions.
With this new direction, Pascale Girardin is exploring more personal creative territory, attentive to spaces and people. Her work infuses a room with a sensitive, almost meditative presence that reveals the beauty of slow gestures and living materials.
By focusing on local collaborations and human-scale projects, the artist reaffirms her talent for bringing art, architecture, and intimacy into a compelling dialogue. And in a world in search of meaning, her approach resonates as an invitation to welcome art into the home in the most real, closest, and lasting way.
About Pascale Girardin
Trained in biology, visual art, ceramics and design, Pascale Girardin brings several disciplines together in a practice that transcends the boundary between art and architecture. Her work beautifies prestigious spaces like Nobu Broadway restaurant in New York, the Four Seasons in Montreal, Printemps Paris and Al Badia Golf Club in Dubai. A winner of the Prix Pierre-Pagé and recipient of grants from the Canada Council and the Conseil des arts du Québec, she creates works in which material and emotion are united.
Photo credit: Stephany Hildebrand