about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Marie-Thérèse Ross' work explores the hidden and her inner unconscious world, focusing on conflicting states of the physical body, as well as emotional & psychological transformations. Transformations that occur naturally, as well as those impacted by the nature of the outside world and its effect on our personal inner psyche. She seeks to both reveal and hide awkward personal experiences including childhood memories, episodes that reflect on her own sense of vulnerability and mortality.  Her playful and spontaneous approach to the process of making gives her work a humorous as well as darkly subversive quality, expressing something deeply personal and visceral. 

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She creates immersive installations with sculptures of corvid birds and fragmented human figures that inhabit and animate furniture.  These incorporate specially commissioned music. The birds have human physical qualities, they are disruptive and chaotic, representing the exterior world, whereas the anthropomorphic furniture seems to move silently, reflecting the more vulnerable and fragile inner core. By focusing on the personal interior versus the outside world, Ross tackles themes that include grief, mortality, feminism, the human figure and the human condition.  

 

"Painted in black and eschewing naturalism and detailing, they are described by Ross not as sculptures of the birds, but sculptures of their shadows. Crafted in wood and recycled timber, they give weight and permanence to the fleeting nature of their subject." (Aliki Braine: Writing without words 2024)

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Using reclaimed wood and found objects that have been discarded by others. Elements or the whole sculpture can be broken or literally smashed and then rebuilt, the process repeated until the required tension is achieved. Sculptures are made of a combination of carved & laminated upcycled wood parts, as well as found objects which are integrated & sublimated into the works & painted.  Colour plays an important role increasing the visceral and emotive quality of the three-dimensional work. Dowels and screws join and secure pieces together, often left exposed rather than smoothed away and hidden

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Ross' exploration of movement, combined with the subconscious mind has led her to make short stop action films. In 2025 she  collaborated with fellow artist Marcia Teusink to make a stop action film, Pangaea Dreaming. The film was included in Sluice Seydisfjordur Expo as an installation and premiered at the Sluice Seydisfjordur Film Festival in Iceland in May 2025.  The two artists combined their practices, using paintings, drawings, found objects and Ross' small-scale wood sculptures. Their playful and blatantly handmade approach indicates a love for the sensual and tactile qualities of natural objects and environments in an increasingly digital age.

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A  residency in 2023 on Eilean Shona, an isolated Scottish Island, represented a new challenge to the artist, where she sought to address her new environment with its temperate rain forest, beaches and pine forests. She worked outdoors in the landscape making site specific sculptures and wood block prints. She also made small wall-based sculptures using found materials including bark, lichens and seaweed, as well as producing over 100 drawings and watercolours.  The experience has left a lasting impact on her practice

 

​Marie-Thérèse Ross MRSS is a member of The Royal Society of Sculptors. She is an Art Gemini Prize winner (2021). Her work has been exhibited in New York, Philadelphia in the United States, Karlsruhe in Germany and in the UK including at the London Art Fair, The Bomb Factory, Vivienne Roberts Projects, Royal Cambrian Academy, and the Elysium Gallery in Wales, The Stone Space, APT Deptford. 

 

Ross was awarded a First Class BA hons in painting from Loughborough College of Art and Design, she went onto to study sculpture in Germany for a year at Karlsruhe Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste with the British sculptor Michael Sandle RA. She studied sculpture for her MA at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA. 

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