Marjolein Rothman: [WG.Project 31] Orange and Teal

Wetterling Gallery is proud to present Orange and Teal, the Dutch artist’s fifth solo exhibition in Stockholm.

Orange and teal references a specific colour contrast, typically encountered in filmmaking and photography. It combines the warmth of orange with the cool, soothing tones of teal or deep blue. This colour combination can also be traced back to the tradition of painting. Mondrian, for instance, in his earlier period, used red and blue hues when depicting flowers and trees.

In her eponymous series of paintings, Rothman employs these two tones to explore the notion of transformation. By utilizing low contrast, and dividing her compositions into parallel planes, she aims to obscure the boundaries between the subjects and their surroundings. This shift in perception occurs as the primary form and 'rest form' alternately come to the fore.

Furthermore, Rothman's chosen motifs, of flowers and self-portraits, constitute art historical nods to the vanitas and memento mori still-life genres in painting, with their reference to the fleetingness of life. Symbolizing ephemeral beauty, flowers parallel the enigmatic nature of the self-portraits. As such, her distinct painterly technique transmutes the flowers, bodies, and faces, into ghostly appearances that seem to simultaneously appear and disappear.

Much like the development of images in analog photography, Rothman endeavors to allow her compositions to gradually reveal themselves in various stages, from one painting to the next. Similarly, the arrangement of these paintings alongside one another emulates the frames on a filmstrip, a comparison often drawn to the workings of memory.

Orange and tealcontinues Rothman’s exploration of the role of images in the forming of identities, and delves deeper into the transformative qualities shared by analogue photography, cinema and painting.

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Marjolein Rothman (b. 1974) studied at the AKI in Enschede, and was artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, between 2003-2004. Rothman was awarded the Dutch Royal Prize for Painting in 2004. Her works have been exhibited at De Kunsthal Rotterdam, De Vleeshal Middelburg, De Nederlandsche Bank, Amsterdam. In 2023, Rothman had her first museum show at Villa Mondriaan in Winterswijk, accompanied by a publication (Interval, 2023). Since 2010, she is a Lecturer in Fine Art at HKU, Utrecht, and Painting at AKI Art EZ Enschede.

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