Marcella Lassen
B. 1952
American
Primarily an oil painter, artist Marcella Lassen has had a deep fascination with the hamburger as a worldwide cultural icon. For 15 years, Lassen created hamburger art in various media. Her project-exclusive website, www.hamburger-art.com, displays an array of the popular burger reminiscent of Andy Warhol or Wayne Thiebaud’s Pop Art work. For her piece in Cultural Currency, Wall Street Burger, Lassen strays from her traditional medium of oil painting to sculpture. She states, “The Wall Street Burger is very much an “in your face” visualization of consumerism in its most pronounced form. However, the piece makes other statements as well.” Lassen further elaborates that the burger symbolizes one of humankind’s most basic needs: we must eat to survive. Yet the need for money seems even more pivotal to survival in contemporary society. Food and money are interconnected by Wall Street, an iconic symbol of Western economy and referenced in Lassen’s title. Without this connection, one cannot exist without the other. This leads to questions about how Wall Street’s actions impact the cost and quality of food, which affects society’s overall health and well-being. Who is benefiting from these decisions, and who is not?
An American artist who has lived in Europe for more than four decades, Marcella Lassen is a native of Southern California. She completed a BFA Degree cum laude in Fine Arts and Art History at the University of Southern California in 1975, which included four semesters abroad at the University of Vienna and the University of Applied and Contemporary Art in Vienna. She moved to Europe permanently in 1976, and has lived and worked in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland. She completed a further 7-year degree in Monumental Painting at the Flemish Art Academy in Brussels in 1998. Marcella Lassen has exhibited throughout Europe continuously since 1987 and has had gallery representation in Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. She maintains a studio in Switzerland.
