Marjolein Marx
Paintings shaped by changing landscapes.
Marjolein Marx is a painter from the Netherlands, working under the name Atelier Marx. Marx travels to landscapes that look striking at first sight and hold, just beneath that surface, a slow story of being reshaped by the earth and by a changing climate. The pigment of every painting is made by hand, from the stones, sand, and minerals collected on site. Each work carries a physical fragment of the terrain that shaped it, and a record of what that terrain looked like at one moment in time.
Marx started painting full time at the end of 2025. Based in Amsterdam, currently in South America, previously in the Western United States. The most recent series, End of the World, was made traveling through Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and Chile.
How a painting begins
Every painting starts with travel. The landscape is photographed; stones, sand, minerals, and salt are gathered on site.
Back in the studio those materials are ground by hand into pigment.
The pigment builds the surface of the painting. Sometimes a face emerges from the contours of the land. Sometimes the soul of the place rises through the painting. Sometimes the natural structures of the land take the canvas. The landscape rarely stands still: the earth keeps moving it, sometimes through slow geological forces, sometimes through a climate humans are accelerating. Each painting holds one point in that movement.
Landscapes that exist in contrast will be the basis of my artworks. I'm drawn to landscapes that exist in tension: fragile yet fierce, inviting yet perilous. I photograph the landscapes I encounter, gather their stones and sands, and create my own pigments. The pigment of the artworks are made by hand from the stones and minerals gathered from the location. This creates an earthy, mineral presence and carries a physical fragment of the place into the artwork itself. My work seeks to hold both wonder and warning in the same frame, inviting reflection on how we move through a world that is as volatile as it is beautiful.
End of the World
The most recent series came out of a journey through Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, and Chile. The paintings take shape from glacial sediment at Perito Moreno, marble dust at Puerto Río Tranquilo, the high-altitude steppe at Valle de las Estrellas, the open steppe of Santa Cruz Province, the volcanic ground of Llaima, and the worn shoreline of Ushuaia at the southern edge of the continent.
The studio is now further north in South America, where the next series is taking shape.
Follow the journey on Instagram: @atelier.marx.
Series & collections
Get in touch
For commissions, gallery inquiries, or to ask about a previous work that has already been sold, write to info@AtelierMarx.com.