Mona Oren – Wax sculptor

Île-de-France – 1975

Mona Oren is a wax sculptor. After studying art at the Thelma Yellin School in Israel, she has graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2002. In 2006, she took up a residency at Chiang Mai University Fine Arts in Thailand, a UNESCO program. During her studies, she has encountered wax and made it her signature. Her medium is a mixture of animal wax (beeswax), mineral wax (kerosene) and vegetable wax. With it, she creates protean works she brings to life through drawing, photography, video and installation, even if they remain sculptures. Her art pieces are three-dimensional and put into situation (spatialization, transcription, photographic or video series).

In her workshop, Mona Oren creates pieces for private clients, interior designers, and luxury brands such as Guerlain, Dior and Chaumet. Her work is also exhibited in French and international museums and galleries.

2019 – Residency at Villa Médicis.

2018 – Winner of the Dialogues Prize – Bettencourt Schueller Foundation.

Research and innovation

Since the beginning of her career, Mona Oren has been researching and adapting white wax as a creative medium. Indeed, her material must be malleable yet resistant to sculpt the desired forms, and they must be able to be manipulated and adapted to future exhibition spaces. She shapes her material using molds made of silicone, plaster or resin. Thanks to her highly specific techniques, she is able to obtain a very fine wax thickness of one or two millimetres.

Transmission

Mona Oren plays an active role in the transmission of her know-how, since apprenticeships are only taught by the craftsmen themselves in their workshops. She therefore welcomes and trains apprentices and trainees and gives weekly sculpture and modeling classes at Ateliers Terre & Feu in Paris. She also runs workshops in schools (ESAD Orléans, Thelma Yellin School of Art in Israel, ISCID – Toulouse University) and prestigious institutions such as IFM, Maison & Objet and Palais de Tokyo.

Fondation Rémy Cointreau has supported Mona Oren in 2020 so that she could source wax and equip her workshop to market her products.