Tabaton-Osbourne

Michela Tabaton-Osbourne is a visual artist based between the UK and Italy. She uses mixed media sculpture as a tool to explore themes of cultural hybridity, belonging, tradition and alienation from an individual standpoint – an interest fuelled by her own dual heritage. She has a preference for ‘traditional’ techniques such as carving, sculpting and mosaic as they represent an engagement with heritage and ritual.

She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, where she produced a thesis in Italian entitled – ‘Identity, Culture, Symbol’ in which she analysed texts written by authors like Levi Strauss and Anthony Cohen, delving into their perspectives on various aspects of identity. Additionally, she examined how Marlene Dumas' research approaches the subject of identity.

This project included interviews with Jamaican artists , Deborah Anzinger, Leasho Johnson and Oneika Russell, which she conducted during an internship at NLS (artist run residency space, Kingston) in the summer of 2015.

In 2020 she graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara – a city famous for it’s white marble quarries, favoured by artists of the renaissance. Her graduation thesis was entitled ‘TESSERAE: Between sculpture and mosaic. The hybridization of a traditional medium in the age of globalization’’. Under the guidance of her professors Enzo Tinarelli and Ulrich Mueller, who are prominent mosaicist and sculptor respectively, she delved into the evolving realm of mosaics, exploring how this ancient technique undergoes a renaissance within diverse branches of contemporary art. This gave her the opportunity to research diverse artists such as El Anatsui, Ai Wei Wei, Attukwei Clottey and Michael Rakowitz, to name a few.