Marianne Kolb "Confronting Reality With A Particular Urgency"

MARIANNE KOLB CONFRONTING REALITY WITH A PARTICULAR URGENCY

MARIANNE KOLB

CONFRONTING REALITY

WITH A PARTICULAR URGENCY

JULY 2 - 27, 2024

“The human figure is the channel through which I most expressively portray my vision. I’m fascinated by the solitariness and mysteriousness of human beings. I grew up in the isolation of a small Swiss farm village. Traditionally, a woman’s sole role was to be of service and support to her husband. I felt suffocated by this strict suppression of independence, freedom, and creativity. My own personal and painful experience of sexual violence also occurred in that regimented place of origin. Years later, after I moved to the U.S., I was able to address my emotional scars with the help of a therapist. But my experiences — of compelling forces, both silent and overt, and the difficulty of enduring and defying repression — informed the presentation of my painted figures.

Fueled by a deep empathy with this struggle, I began intentionally and exclusively painting figures of women and girls. The subjects of my paintings are imperfect, stripped to their bare essence. I paint them into unspecified environments, upon layered fields of color, hoping to highlight their vulnerability and defiance, their pride, shame, beauty, and scars. Figures’ arms are often partially presented, hands in pockets, or held behind backs, possibly signaling ongoing constraints. Many of the figures wear big shoes, as if steadying themselves for rough roads ahead. Even with the figures’ vulnerable and restrained qualities, they seem on the cusp of further agency. Their stances have a calm strength in the captured moment, a gracefulness revealed as they return the gaze of the viewer.

In my paintings, I want to give tribute to the depth of human perseverance and to provide the figures with the imaginary opportunity to be seen as they are — courageous heroes of their own lives. They assert themselves, saying, I am here .”

- Marianne Kolb

PATRICIA ROVZAR GALLERY

1111 1st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98101

Grace, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 48 inches, $20,000.00

Fiona, mixed media on canvas, 61 x 48 inches, $20,000.00

Louise, mixed media on canvas, 47.5 x 38.5 inches, $14,000.00

Liliana, mixed media on canvas, 47.5 x 38.5 inches, $14,000.00

Zora, mixed media on canvas, 47.5 x 38.5 inches, $14,000.00

Posey, mixed media on panel, 17 x 14 inches, $3,900.00

Sasha, mixed media on canvas, 44 x 30 inches, $9,500.00

Théa, mixed media on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, $4,200.00

Uma, mixed media on panel, 17 x 14 inches, $3,900.00

Zefira, mixed media on canvas, 44 x 30 inches, $9,500.00

Nicola, mixed media on canvas, 44 x 30 inches, $9,500.00

Maude, mixed media on canvas, 47.5 x 38.5 inches, $14,000.00

Space Between the Space Around Us, mixed media on panel, 24 x 19 inches, $4,500.00

Holding Your Promise in My Hands, mixed media on panel, 20 x 16 inches, $4,200.00

Remind Us Tomorrow, mixed media on canvas, 20 x 20 inches, $4,500.00

Nora, mixed media on canvas, 28 x 25 inches, $6,000.00