Marlene Bauer
Marlene Bauer’s paintings balance between abstraction and representation, exploring a symbolic vocabulary of simplified form and nuanced color. Her work is subtly narrative, with evocative images of domestic interiors and settings of daily life connecting personal memories to time and place. In some paintings, suggestions of the human figure intersect with map-like passageways, while other pieces juxtapose the containment of interior spaces with the expansiveness of the outdoors. Bauer’s energetic use of color and sensuous line draw viewers into her paintings, where exploration of personal memory and history can lead in myriad directions.
A Northwest native, Marlene Bauer received her BFA in 1976 from the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Since that time she has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest while teaching art at Marylhurst College. From 2002-05, while teaching art at Clackamas Community College she helped develop the inaugural shows for the college’s newly established Alexander Gallery. Her work is in private and public collections along the West coast including the Portland Art Museum, Oregon Health & Science University, Safeco Corp., and Seattle Arts Commission. Public commissions include a columnar mosaic for the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, WA, and most recently, projects for public libraries in Portland and Troutdale, OR.