Marjolein Rothman

Biography

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Marjolein Rothman (Eibergen, the Netherlands, 1974) received her education at the A.K.I. in Enschede (1994-1999) and was an artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, she was awarded both the Royal Award for Painting and the Buning Brongers Prize. In the Netherlands, her work has been shown at venues including De Kunsthal (Rotterdam), De Vleeshal (Middelburg), Stadsgalerij Heerlen, and Museum MORE (Gorssel). In 2023, she held her first solo museum exhibition at Museum Villa Mondriaan in Winterswijk. Internationally, her work has been presented at art fairs such as FIAC (Paris), ARCO (Madrid), Art Cologne, Art Brussels, and Art Miami. In 2009, she had her first solo show at Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm, followed by solo exhibitions in 2012, 2016, 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Since 2010 Marjolein Rothman lectures Fine Art at the HKU, Utrecht and AKI, ArtEZ Enschede. She lives and works in Amsterdam.

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Marjolein Rothman explores in her paintings the instability of memory and perception, and how these influence our view of reality. Driven by a desire to find meaning in what is constantly changing, she repeatedly returns to the same image, allowing it to disintegrate across a series, causing the gaze to gradually shift. Each series becomes an investigation into representation, revealing what is on the verge of fading. 

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In 2003 she started to paint official monuments, historical figures and relics. In Iconography I (2006), she explored the aura of religious female icons and their stereotypical depictions. She then portrayed friends in the same manner in Iconography II (2007). This questioning of stereotypes associated with femininity runs as a continuous thread throughout her work. In the series Zeno (2012–2016), she painted a beach scene of herself with her son over and over until the image became almost abstract. These paintings form an attempt to capture a specific moment while simultaneously confronting her role as both mother and artist. In her latest series 'False Clour' (2019/2020), 'Reversed Grounds' (2022) and 'Penumbra' (2025), Marjolein Rothman casts the ancient flower motive in a new light. Whilst botanical motifs historically are coded as feminine and decorative, in Rothman’s work, the flower or plant serves as a carrier of physicality and action, forming an imprint of an experience rather than a static symbol.

 

In all of these series Rothman creates material metaphors for the ambiguity that characterizes specific representation. Each work is created in a single session, within a short time span, using only a few gestures. It is often difficult to determine whether the images are emerging or fading. In this way, her paintings mirror the instable nature of perception and reveal the attempt to hold on to something that inevitably slips away from us.