Marloes Roeper is intrigued by the question of what exactly we see when we look at a painting. While closely observing her everyday surroundings, she is struck by objects, forms and compositions that evoke in her an immediate desire to paint. This desire is triggered not by the particular beauty of these finds, but by her fascination with the ability to evoke meaning with a few brushstrokes. For Roeper, the painterly challenge is to achieve figuration with efficient means. Landscapes, tree branches and lampposts are the motifs in her exploration of dissecting reality.
Most of her works start from a photograph; here the composition, framing, and process of painting begins. Although all her paintings seem to show recognisable things, such as windowpanes, football fields, electricity poles, or other objects we think we know, Roeper has stripped them down to their bare essence. Her works, therefore, play with our notion of understanding what it is we see, and emerge from a challenge to achieve figuration with the most efficient means. As such, Roeper’s works question what we actually need to create an image, beyond frame, canvas, and paint.
Roeper graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts in 2021. Roeper was one of the graduates selected to participate in the Best of Graduates 2021 and was Artist-in-residence at the Boijmans van Beuningen Depot as winner of the Lakeside Collection Award. Her works have been acquired by the Lakeside Collection, AkzoNobel, Sanquin and several private collections.