Marissa’s practice is rooted in foraging, colour, and material processes. She makes pigments and dyes from gathered botanicals to explore ecology, materiality, and our relationship with the natural world. Working across painting, textiles, installation, performance, and sculpture, her process is shaped by season, place, and the slow transformation of living matter into colour. Through making, she uncovers stories of landscape, cultural memory, and the knowledge held within natural materials.
Marissa Stoffer (b. Netherlands) is a cross-disciplinary artist and educator.
She studied MA Painting at the Royal College of Art (2023), and MA Fine Art (Combined History of Art and Painting) at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art 2(014).
A W A R D S
Colart, Materials Award, 2020. Royal Scottish Academy Latmier Award, 2019. Hope Scott Trust, Bursary Award, 2018
Scottish Council and Creative Scotland, Edinburgh Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award, 2018. Creative Scotland, Open Funding, 2017. Royal Scottish Academy, Stuart Prize, 2015. Royal Scottish Academy, New Contemporaries Exhibition Award, 2015. Edinburgh College of Art, Art Collections Purchase Prize, 2014.Edinburgh College of Art, Graduate Studio Bursary prize, 2014
E X H I B I T I O N S
Echoes of Hope, Superlab Suisse, Switzerland, 2026. Dancing Flame of the Ashes, Vermillon Partners, solo exhibition,London, 2025. Gathering The Commons, West Norwood Cemetery Lottery Heritage Fund, 2025. Wasteless 2 Material Journeys, University of East London, 2024. Voices From the Lea, Barge Fiodra, Canal River Trust, London, 2024.Even Poets Were Jealous of These, Vermillon Partners, London, 2023. Brink, 2030 Collective, RCA Hanger, London, 2023. Beneath The Burren, Burren College of Art, Ireland, 2023. The Landscape of One’s Own, Vermillon Partners, London, 2023. Lost Wax – For Lost Species, Barbican, London, 2022. Re-Connect, Society of Scottish Artists, Scotland, 2021. In Limbo¸ Rhubaba, Edinburgh, 2021. Utopias, SYN Festival, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2019. Beyond Uncanny, San Roque Cambuza, Peru, 2018. Artists At Work, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2018. Odysseys, Syn Festival, Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2018. Metamorphosis-Transformation, SYN Festival Edinburgh, Out of the Blue, Edinburgh, 2017. Silence Awareness Existence, Arteles, Finland 2017. New Scottish Artists, Fleming Collection, London, 2015. The Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporaries, Edinburgh, 2015.
R E S I D E N C I E S
Qingcheng Mountain, Chengdu Region, UNESCO reserve, China, Vermillon Partners, 2024 (5 months Funded). Hinterlands mini-residency, River Lea, Canal River Trust, 2023 (Funded).Burren College of Art, Awarded by RCA, Ireland 2023. Art, Nature, Humanity, Marchmont House, 2021 (Funded). Numbershop, Caravana Grande, Micro residency, Scotland, Edinburgh Fringe, 2018. Sachaqa Centro De Art,Ecology: Pigments, Paper, and Ceramics, Peru, 2018. (Supported by Edinburgh Visual Artist and Craft Makers Award & Hope Scott Trust). Invererne, SkillShare, Scotland, 2017. Arteles, Silence Awareness Existence, Finland, 2017. (Supported by Creative Scotland - Open Project Funding.
W O R K S H O P S
Bespoke workshops developed by Marissa Stoffer called Foraging for Colour to tell the stories of plants (history, myth, folklore, and science) through guided walks and the craft of colour-making. These workshops differ from short guided one-off walks to five-day workshops learning foraging, colour making, and painting with botanical colours.
Partners include: Canal River Trust, Leith School of Art, Connecting Threads: River Tweed,and Great Place Falkirk.