Maria Roosen – Solo

This exhibition by artist Maria Roosen offers an intimate look at her multifaceted work, where emotions, feelings and states of mind flow together like wet watercolour on paper or pigments in molten glass. The wide variety of forms and materials highlights how Roosen continually engages in dialogue with works in progress and their ever-changing environments, often embracing chance and following her intuition.

Maria Roosen, Untitled, 1993, watercolor solidified blown glass, 50 x 44 x 28 cm, courtesy artist and Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam, photo Sonia Mangiapane

Spanning more than four decades, Roosen’s oeuvre has become an integral part of the Dutch art landscape. Her work has been widely featured in group exhibitions focusing on the female perspective, as well as in unique heritage locations and public spaces where it interacts with the wind and seasons beyond the museum walls.

Maria Roosen’s work grows more relevant with each passing day in the face of the increasing silencing of vulnerable voices and the suppression of emotion in an over-rationalised society. The pressing question her work raises is: What role do our bodies still have and are they allowed to occupy?

Maria Roosen, Back, 2017, watercolor on paper, Polyester resin frame, 98 x 77 cm, Galerie Fons Welters

This calls for a major solo exhibition, one that not only highlights the diversity of her iconic works but also focuses on the lesser-known aspects of her oeuvre. Alongside new pieces, the galleries at the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam will showcase rarely or never-before-seen works from the early stages of her career, including drawings and watercolours that offer insight into her creative process.

The exhibition is curated by Inez Piso-Tuncay.

Header: Maria Roosen, Mirror Breasts on a Tree, 1993, blown and mirrored glass, height approx. 70 cm, Courtesy of Galerie Fons Welters.