Artist of the Month
September 2021
Marlene Rose
Marlene Rose is an internationally-acclaimed sand cast glass artist with a style and perspective that transcends time. Through her use of ancient techniques, Marlene has cultivated a perfect balance in her work that reflects both then and now. Her sculptures celebrate the unique properties of glass, of transparency, and shine and reflection. Marlene is represented by Elder Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Click on each photo to the right for a full picture.
Red Mini Buddha; 10 x 4 x 4 inches; sand cast glass with hand forged metal stand
Butterfly - Blue; 15 x 18 x 18 inches; sand cast glass and metal base
Dark Amber Arrow Buddha; 23 x 6 x 5 inches; sand cast glass and hand forged metal stand
Halo Buddha - Gold; 25 x 18 x 12 inches; sand cast glass and metal base
Celadon Butterfly; 9 x 10 x 2 inches; sand cast glass with hand forged metal stand
Aqua Horizontal Pyramid Quilt; 17 x 34 x 9 inches; sand cast glass with hand forged metal base
Lime Green Moroccan Butterfly; 21 x 33 x 8 inches; sand cast glass with steel base
Celadon Bookshelf Buddha; 14 x 5 inches; sand cast glass with hand forged metal stand
Marlene Rose
Artist Statement:
My goal as an artist is to inject life into whatever I can make. In simple terms: to make the piece come alive. The glass immortalizes a glimpse of something fleeting beyond the moment, taking that moment and freezing it over. They are kept moments, shards of what I have seen, unnamed emotions, visions, concepts, memories. They call back; and they are the vehicle on which a viewer’s vision can ride away. The glass is there only to see through.
About Marlene Rose
Marlene Rose was born in New York where she grew up surrounded by art; her mother was a painter and her father a sculptor of found objects. Educated at Promfret School in Connecticut, she expanded her exploration of the visual arts at Tulane University in New Orleans. It was at Tulane that she came into her own as an artist, developing her unique style. She held her first solo exhibition before graduation, with a sell out show at the top gallery in New Orleans.
Following this success she went on to earn a Master’s degree from the California College of the Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. She attended a summer program at Pilchuck Glass School. She has since traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, South America, Africa and the Caribbean gaining even more influences and ideas for her work.
Sandcasting, Marlene's medium of glassmaking, is an ancient metal casting technique that has more recently been adapted for glass. Liquid molten glass is poured into individual sand molds, each of which is destroyed after a single use, yielding a one-of-a-kind glass sculpture. Because her works are cast objects, they hold in their form the memory of the shapes and textures of the materials that formed them; they are fine-grained, rugged or smooth, transparent or translucent, colored or clear.
Click here for an artist's resume.
Acknowledgment of Gallery:
We are grateful to Elder Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina, for providing the Artist of the Month.
The Art Alliance for Contemporary Glass is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to further the development and appreciation of art made from glass.
The Alliance informs collectors, critics and curators by encouraging and supporting museum exhibitions, university glass departments and specialized teaching programs, regional collector groups, visits to private collections, and public seminars.
