Marilyn Holsing is a Philadelphia-based painter and Professor Emerita at Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Her practice spans painting, sculpture, and dioramas, often exploring themes of containment, light, and botanical abundance. She begins each work with layered colored grounds, building forms that emerge through revision and response rather than predetermined plans. Influenced by her investigations of bell jars and glass cloches—objects that both protect and confine—Holsing examines how reflections fracture space and alter perception, collapsing distinctions between interior and exterior environments.
Holsing's work draws inspiration from Rococo painters, Dutch forest still lifes, and botanical illustration, embracing visual density and layering. Her recent practice has expanded into new media while maintaining her long-standing commitment to painting. Living in the Philadelphia suburbs, she incorporates her interest in gardening and landscape design into her studio work. Her paintings hold tension between containment and expansion, surface and depth, creating spaces where life feels suspended or arrested. Her work is held in major public collections including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Woodmere Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Fidelity Investments.
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