Marlene Gouder (born in Malta in 1980) is mainly a self-taught artist. However, she attended periodical classes at the School of Art in Valletta and eventually took up art direction under the tutelage of local artist Anton Calleja for a number of years. For some time Marlene also teamed up with artists Lino Borg and Patrick Dalli to carry out in-depth studies of the nude. Lately she has been continuing her studies on the human figure and portraiture together with various art groups including those formed by Celia Borg Cardona, Alfred Briffa, Patrick Dalli and Anna Galea. In 2012 she attended a course on Incision at the Malta School of Arts.

In November 2008 Marlene presented a study project entitled 'Reducing social stigma towards mental illness through art' at the HORATIO European Festival of Psychiatric Nurses. In March 2009 she launched a project at the Mtarfa Local Council entitled 'Portraits – Studies of Colour'. Between 2005 and 2013, Marlene exhibited in several collective exhibitions in Malta.

Currently, Marlene's main interest lies in exploring and applying philosophical concepts to figurative works.

New Body of work 2013-2014 : My – Our? Philosophies of life.

Have you ever asked the question why or how, and wondered endlessly only to find yourself asking more questions?

Passages in our human history have contributed greatly to discoveries which I have endeavoured to explore and understand. However, the need for knowing my existential being and the role of the other has made me ask questions. The question of self, the enquiry of time, the absurdity of death, the existence of God, the reason of life, have all at one point bothered most of us, and the answers, or lack of, have travelled through realms of thought. To these many answers have been given by Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Steiner, Heidegger, but the best answers that we find are not written in books or theories. They lie in our thoughts, which we as thinkers have the cognition to transcend.