The textural diversity of Marieke Russel’s oeuvre is a testament to her intuitive, insightful art-making approach. Russel allows her materials and her subjects to guide her, seeing herself as the skilled conduit through which a mythical visual world arises. Her colorful tapestries have a fluid, ephemeral quality, echoing the harmoniousness of Taoism and Zen Buddhism. On the other hand, the characters she sculpts in bronze and wood tend to be more intrepid and straightforward. Yet all of Russel’s work, regardless of its material, shares a theatrical quality, as if revealing just one poignant scene in a narrative that has neither a beginning nor an ending.

Initially influenced by the fantasies in English Pre-Raphaelite painting, Russel has developed her own spontaneous approach to theatrical narratives. After studying pedagogy at the Royal Conservatorium in Den Haag and running a ballet school, Russel devoted herself to visual art. She has exhibited extensively throughout the Netherlands.