about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Marie-Thérèse Ross’ work explores her inner unconscious world, focusing on conflicting states of the physical body as well as emotional and psychological transformations. The human figure is central to her practice as she explores the human condition. She seeks to both reveal and hide awkward personal experiences, episodes that reflect on her own sense of vulnerability and mortality.

 

Marie-Thérèse carves and laminates upcycled wood parts and incorporates discarded ‘found’ objects which are then integrated and sublimated into the works. She is drawn to wood as a material because of its place in the history of art both within the canon of painting and sculpture. Its physicality and suitability for collage and colour allows her the flexibility of building three-dimensional works imbued with a powerful visceral and emotive quality. She constructs works that extend into physical space and yet exist between painting and sculpture. Her playful and spontaneous approach to the process of making gives her work a humorous and darkly subversive quality, confronting themes which include grief, and mortality.  

 

In 2023 Marie-Thérèse was awarded a month-long residency on the isolated Scottish island Eilean Shona, an experience which left a lasting impact on her practice, inspiring her to explore the landscapes she saw through sculpture. These sculptures explore memory and place, as well as the human condition through integrated carved feet and hands, describing and tracing human presence, touch and memory. The human experience is central to Marie-Thérèse’s practice as corvid-like birds and anthropomorphic furniture are given physical human qualities and postures. Whereas  the birds and creatures appear invasive, representing the disruption of the exterior world, the anthropomorphic furniture moves silently, reflecting the more vulnerable and fragile inner core. She creates immersive installations with sculptures of corvid birds and fragmented human figures which inhabit and animate furniture, some installations incorporating specially commissioned music.

 

"Ross’ work repurposes scraps of wood which have lived other lives...(She) uses wood sourced from found timber and discarded furniture, including bookshelves from her parents’ home. Creating a vocabulary of wooden shapes which are strung on wire like notes on a stave or words on a line..." (Aliki Braine: Writing without words 2024)

 

Marie-Thérèse's interest in movement led her to explore the medium of short stop-action films. In 2025, she collaborated with fellow artist Marcia Teusink to create the film, Pangaea Dreaming, which was included in Sluice Seyðisfjörður Expo as an installation and then premiered at the Sluice Seyðisfjörður Film Festival in Iceland. Combining their artistic practices, they used paintings, drawings, found objects, and Marie-Thérèse's small-scale wood sculptures to demonstrate their love for the sensual and tactile qualities of the natural environment in an increasingly digital age.

 

Marie-Thérèse lives and works in London and is a member of The Royal Society of Sculptors. She is an Art Gemini Prize winner (2021). Her work has been exhibited internationally including  New York (USA), and Germany, and in exhibition spaces across the UK including the London Art Fair, The Bomb Factory, Vivienne Roberts Projects, ArtHouse1, The Stone Space, APT Deptford, The Old Parcels Office Scarborough, Bankley Gallery Manchester, Royal Cambrian Academy, and the Elysium Gallery in Wales. 

 

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

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