Marlene BauerLarge Modernist Figurative Abstract Oil Painting BASKET, 1988

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A Pacific Northwest native, Bauer was born in Vancouver, Washington, and has maintained a studio in Portland, Oregon since 1976. … Read more A Pacific Northwest native, Bauer was born in Vancouver, Washington, and has maintained a studio in Portland, Oregon since 1976. She attended the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the University of Oregon where she received her M.F.A. Since that time, she has exhibited her work throughout the Northwest while teaching art as an associate professor at Marylhurst University.
Bauer applies her modernist approach to her artwork, and her paintings become a sort of balancing act in reconciling her subjects and her techniques. Teetering between abstraction and representational, Bauer's houses are depicted as simplified forms, exploiting a universal iconography. The recognizable elements in her artwork – trees, buildings – are unconventionally depicted in wide patches of overlapping color, "pulling each painting away from literal interpretation." Marlene Bauer's abstractions stem from her interest in the visual dynamics of a quick impression of a landscape from a moving car or a glance out a window.
The artist has exhibited her work in solo exhibitions at the Laura Russo Gallery, the Elizabeth Leach Gallery (both in Portland), and the Davidson Galleries in Seattle. Bauer's artwork is included in many of the region's public and private collections including the King County Regional Justice Center, Bank of America, the City of Portland, the City of Seattle, the Oregon State Arts Commission, the Portland Art Museum, Oregon Health & Science University and Safeco Corp. 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. See less