Maria Roosen
Oisterwijk, NL, 1957 Works and lives in Arnhem
Maria Roosen studied at the Moller Institute in Tilburg and the art academy of Arnhem, the Netherlands. She received two prizes for her complete works: the Wilhelmina Ring in 2006 and the Singer Prize in 2009. She is represented by Galerie Fons Welters in Amsterdam.
The elegant works of Maria Roosen are created in close collaboration with craftsmen such as glassblowers, carpenters and knitters. In addition to working with wood, wool, leather, paper mache and plated gold, Roosen uses mainly glass. The hardness of this material is in contrast with the liquid forms that she creates with it. The artist sees glass as energy in a solid state: the production process always remains visible.
The intimate activity of glassblowing leads to monumental works of immense sizes. Themes such as growth, life, metamorphoses, fertility and the male and female nature are clearly recognisable in Roosen’s typical, organic visual language. From coloured glass breasts and sperm cells to hand-knitted sun flowers: her work is soft and cheeky at the same time.