Works
Isabel Rower
Imago
February 14 – April 04 2026
Imago
Marta is delighted to announce Imago, an expansive presentation by New York-based artist Isabel Rower. Comprised of seating, tabling, vessels, and paintings, the artist’s new body of work defies and embraces the terminology (applied-, decorative-, and fine-) we have long depended on to categorize artistic output, offering an exhibition that, as its title suggests, emerges from the chrysalis of Rower’s vision, an entity informed and transformed by the imitation and reinterpretation of historical design.
Drawing inspiration from the so-called Garden Room, the frescoed dining room, or triclinium, in the Villa of Livia, the residence of Livia Drusilla, the third wife of Augustus, the founder of the Roman Empire, Rower casts a perimeter around the gallery via twelve paintings realized on antique linens—bedsheets, washcloths, and tablecloths—that enclose the artist’s functional-sculptural work within an evocative boundary. Intimate in their display, they allude to larger, contextualized, environments: moody forests and orchards rendered in the rich greens, browns, and golds of Flemish tapestries, their watery imagery both haunting and sacred. With lush leaves, dark limbs, and luminescent fruit, these treescapes operate through reference and mimicry, inducing a sense of the ancient in the contemporary that is shared by Rower’s ceramic works: each of her vessels and stoneware chairs, throne-like in their hand-built constructions, are easily mistaken for marble or travertine, the intricate patterning and painterly application of their glazes applied as the skins that indicate, once fired, their final stage of development—their imago.
This interest in trompe l'œil, previously explored in Box Works (2024), the artist’s first solo presentation with Marta, extends to the paper pulp tables and seats that Rower has created, a material that feigns stone through its ornate surface treatments and alludes to the papier-mâché furniture and objet d’art that became popular in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. Marbled legs support the scalloped tabletop of Twelve Pointed Cloud while inlaid ribbon and long-stemmed flowers sculpted in epoxy spread across the circular face of Pierian Spring and along the seat backs of Oleander and Loosener of Limbs, Love. In Rower’s hands, the functional becomes poetic, descendants from a lineage of traditions that celebrate the lyric possibilities of every room and place of rest—a belief that wherever our eyes and hands fall, there should exist beauty.
Works
Isabel Rower
Triclinares I, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
37.0 H × 25.0 W × 20.0 D in.
94.0 H × 63.5 W × 50.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Triclinares II, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
37.0 H × 25.0 W × 20.0 D in.
94.0 H × 63.5 W × 50.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Shrine, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
29.25 H × 18.0 W × 24 D in.
74.3 H × 45.7 W × 61.0 D cm
Isabel Rower
Sophrosyne, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Clear Glaze
6.0 H × 18.0 W × 18.0 D in.
15.2 H × 45.7 W × 45.7 D cm
Isabel Rower
Ecdysis, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
34.0 H × 20.5 W × 18.5 D in.
86.4 H × 52.1 W × 47.0 D cm
Isabel Rower
Carapace, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
31.75 H × 15.0 W × 13.5 D in.
80. 6 H × 38.1 W × 34.3 D cm
Isabel Rower
Sella, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
29.5 H × 17.0 W × 18.0 D in.
75.0 H × 43.2 W × 45.7 D cm
Isabel Rower
Cathedra, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
24.5 H × 22.0 W × 20.5 D in.
62.2 H × 55.9 W × 52.1 D cm
Isabel Rower
Fetish Percolator, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
15.5 H × 14.25 W × 12.25 D in.
39.37 H × 36.2 W × 31.1 D cm
Isabel Rower
Elegiac Stump, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
16.0 H × 13.5 W × 13.5 D in.
40.6 H × 34.3 W × 34.3 D cm
Isabel Rower
Faience Farce, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
14.5 H × 14.5 W × 14.5 D in.
36.8 H × 36.8 W × 36.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Imaginary Register, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
17.0 H × 15.0 W × 12.0 D in.
43.2 H × 38.1 W × 30.5 D cm
Isabel Rower
Hyacinth Colored Ghost, 2025
High Fire Stoneware, Glaze
17.5 H × 14.75 W × 14.5 D in.
44.5 H × 37.5 W × 36.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Oleander, 2025
Ceramic, Paper Pulp, Epoxy, Paint
31.5 H × 18.0 W × 18.0 D in.
80.0 H × 45.8 W × 45.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Twelve Pointed Cloud, 2025
Ceramic, Paper Pulp, Paint
15.25 H × 27.5 W × 27.5 D in.
38.7 H × 69.9 W × 69.9 D cm
Isabel Rower
Loosener of Limbs, Love, 2025
Ceramic, Paper Pulp, Epoxy, Paint
32.0 H × 45.5 W × 21.5 D in.
81.3 H × 115.6 W × 54.6 D cm
Isabel Rower
Pierian Spring, 2025
Ceramic, Paper Pulp, Epoxy, Paint
17.5 H × 37.5 W × 37.5 D in.
44.5 H × 95.3 W × 95.3 D cm
Isabel Rower
Shambling Tonnage, 2026
Linen Damask Bedsheet, Fabric Paint, Thread, Rod
67.0 H × 87.0 W in.
170.2 H × 221.0 W cm
Isabel Rower
Dark Song of the Morning, 2025
Linen Washcloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
28.5 H × 24.0 W in.
72.4 H × 61.0 W cm
Isabel Rower
Green Temples, 2025
Hand Spun Linen, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
51.0 H × 39.5 W in.
129.5 H × 100.3 W cm
Isabel Rower
Exchanging a Certain Happiness, 2026
Hand Spun Linen, Fabric Paint, Thread, Rod
28.5 H × 35.5 W in.
72.4 H × 90.2 W cm
Isabel Rower
One Lunged Woodlot, 2025
Linen Washcloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
30.5 H × 26.0 W in.
77.5 H × 66.0 W cm
Isabel Rower
Mossy Darkness, 2025
Linen Washcloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
30.0 H × 26.0 W in.
76.2 H × 66 W cm
Isabel Rower
Toward Paradise Falling, 2026
Hand Spun Linen, Fabric Paint, Thread, Rod
78.0 H x 91.0 W in.
198.1 H × 231.1 W cm
Isabel Rower
Ad Gallinas Albas, 2025
Linen Damask Tablecloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
52.5 H × 69.25 W in.
133.4 H × 175.9 W cm
Isabel Rower
Games that the Pink-Ankled Graces Play, 2025
Linen Washcloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
30.5 H × 26.0 W in.
77.5 H × 66.0 W cm
Isabel Rower
Wild and Shapeless Air, 2025
Linen Washcloth, Fabric Paint, Thread, Metal Rod
31.5 H × 25.0 W in.
80.0 H × 63.5 W cm
Isabel Rower
Jug, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
16.25 H × 11.0 W × 9.0 D in.
41.3 H × 27.9 W × 2.5 D cm
Isabel Rower
Pitcher, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
13.0 H × 13.0 W × 9.0 D in.
33.0 H × 33.0 W × 22.9 D cm
Isabel Rower
Vas, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
10.75 H × 7.0 W × 7.0 D in.
27.3 H × 17.8 W × 17.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Lomentum, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze.
13.5 H × 9.0 W × 7.0 D in.
34.3 H × 22.9 W × 17.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Whorl, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
6.0 H × 9.0 W × 9.0 D in.
15.2 H × 22.9 W × 29.0 D cm
Isabel Rower
Inflorescence, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
11.0 H × 9.0 W × 4.5 D in.
27.9 H × 22.9 W × 11.4 D cm
Isabel Rower
Cup, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
5.0 H × 3.75 W × 3.75 D in.
(12.7 H × 9.5 W × 9.5 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Calyx, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
7.0 H × 6.5 W × 6.5 D in.
(17.8 H × 16.5 W × 16.5 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Regma, 2026
Stoneware, Clear Interior Glaze
9.5 H × 7.5 W × 5.5 D in.
(24.1 H × 19.1 W × 14.0 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Orb, 2025
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
12.0 H × 8.5 W × 7.0 D in.
30.4 H × 21.6 W × 17.8 D cm
Isabel Rower
Camellia, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
6.5 H × 9.5 W × 9.5 D in.
16.5 H × 24.1 W × 24.1 D cm
Isabel Rower
Petiole, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
11.0 H × 10.0 W × 10.0 D in.
27.9 H × 25.4 W × 25.4 D cm
Isabel Rower
Bottle II, 2026
Porcelain, Clear Glaze
7.25 H × 4.0 W × 2.5 D in.
(18.4 H × 10.2 W × 6.4 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Bottle I, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
9.5 H × 4.5 W × 2.75 D in.
(24.1 H × 11.4 W × 7.0 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Schizocarp, 2026
Porcelain, Clear Glaze
6.0 H × 3.0 W × 3.0 D in.
(15.2 H × 7.6 W × 7.6 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Sepal, 2026
Porcelain, Clear Glaze
6.0 H × 7.0 W × 7.0 D in.
(15.2 H × 17.8 W × 17.8 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Samara, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
4.0 H × 8.5 W × 8.0 D in.
(10.2 H × 21.6 W × 20.3 D cm)
Isabel Rower
Popolo, 2026
Stoneware, Mason Stain, Clear Glaze
11.25 H × 12.75 W × 4.5 D in.
(28.6 H × 32.4 W × 11.4 D cm)
Isabel Rower
(b. 1998, New York, NY)
Isabel Rower is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Rower studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she began making work that operates as both sculpture and furniture. She has shown with galleries such as Fairfax Dorn Projects, Alcova Milano, Europa Gallery, and Marta and has been featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Dezeen. Working primarily with clay, Rower utilizes the forms of everyday and often prime objects to explore the transformative properties of material and the elements of nature, blurring the boundaries between practicality and adornment. Her work was recently acquired by SFMOMA, and her dishware works were featured in a recent presentation with her mother, Maria Robledo, at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.
Marta is a Los Angeles-based, globally-engaged art gallery. Founded in 2019, the gallery makes space for artists to experiment with the utility of design, and for designers to explore the abandonment of function. Marta’s curatorial, publication, and podcast programs take interest in the process of a work’s creation as well the narrative of its creator(s). Marta embraces the intersection of and the transition between disciplines, advocates for diversity in design, and promotes broad access to the arts.