STATEMENT

IN 2000, after a decade of making large-scale outdoor sculpture and installation pieces, I turned to a scale and a medium that suited my desire for immediacy;   the scale was small, the work was figurative, the medium was clay.

I love the materiality of clay. Being earth,   it tends to answer the pull of gravity, but it also accepts every touch. Clay as a medium is unavoidably harnessed to historical images and I   like that. I am interested in dialogue;   between characters, across centuries,   between humans and art objects.   I often work from fashion photographs which are enigmatic statements of contemporary values, heavy with attitude.

In 2007 I began working in wax with the intention of casting into iron. I decided to continue my exploration of fashion with figures of models on a “runway”. The Runway figures are composed of cast iron, gauze and plaster. Iron and plaster is an unusual combination, and for good reason. Iron is hard, heavy and solid, but it wants to oxidize. Plaster is a gypsum stone that has been powdered and reconstituted with water. Water makes iron rust. I became intrigued by the idea of the rust that would continue to change these materials over time, and intrigued that I could not predict the path of the rusting. So far, I am pleased that the rust has been minimal, even though I had set the process in motion.   Contradiction is inherent in this process.

Several things that happened were unexpected.   Most of the fashions that I used as inspiration came from Dior whose lines of clothing are highly theatrical and often inspired by other cultures.   But I also clothed several of the figures in Burkahs, pointing to fashion in other parts of the world.   I then discovered that figures that I had meant to be fashion models with no particular ethnic identity assumed a non-white identity because they were literally the color of the iron. Viewers read the stark black and whiteness of the figures as ‘third world' cultural identities. I welcome this unexpected interpretation which is appropriate to my original intention of examining the cultural implications of fashion.

Gabrielle Rossmer

 

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GABRIELLE ROSSMER

SELECTED EXHIBITION
2008	MPG Contemporary, Boston, MA WOMEN’S LIVES
2007	St. Gaudens Historic Site, Cornish NH. One Person Show
2006	Fla. Holocaust Museum, St. Petersburg, FL. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT ANNUAL SUMMER EXHIBITION, Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford, MA
2005	LynnArts, Lynn, MA. ANIMATED SOCIAL NARRATIVE: GABRIELLE ROSSMER FPAC ARTISTS, Boston Convention Center, Boston, MA NEBiolabs, Beverly, MA. GABRIELLE ROSSMER: SCULPTURE
2000-2002	BETWEEN HEAVEN & EARTH at the Sculpture Park, Decordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
1999	Mason Gross School of the Arts/Rutgers, New Brunswick, NJ. VEILED TIME (catalog)
1998	Maris Gallery, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA. GABRIELLE ROSSMER
1996	300 Summer Street Gallery, Boston. ANXIOUS INFERENCES
1996	Starr Gallery, Newton Jewish Community Center. Newton, MA PRAY FOR THE PEACE OF JERUSALEM: Contemporary Visions
1995-2002	Minnesota Museum of American Art. St. Paul, MN WITNESS & LEGACY: CONTEMPORARY ART ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST (catalog) Traveled through Jan.2002 to 17 venues. See www.albany.edu/museum/wwwmuseum/holo/Rossmer.htm
1994	Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NY. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT:3 Starr Gallery, Newton, MA Jewish Community Center. CREATIVITY & SPIRITUALITY
1992	Space Gallery, Boston, Ma. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT:2 Artist's Foundtn. Gallery, Boston, MA MIRROR, MIRROR
1991	Villa Dessauer, Bamberg Germany. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT   (catalog)
1989	Brickbottom Gallery, Somerville Ma. ARTIST'S CHOICE Hilles Library, Harvard University, Cambridge,MA 6 ARTISTS AT HARVARD (catalog)
1988	Cambridge Multicultural Art Center, Cambridge, MA ASSEMBLAGE
1987	Maris Gallery, Westfield State College, Westfield, MA. THREE SCULPTORS Madeleine Carter Gallery, Brookline, MA. ONE-PERSON SHOW Federal Reserve Bank, Boston, MA FT POINT ARTISTS
1984	Chesterwood Natl. Trust, Stockbridge, MA CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY SCULPTURESPACE:RECENT TRENDS
1983	Honey Sharpe Gallery, Lenox, MA Goethe Institute, Boston, MA GERMAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS
1982	Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA FOCUS ON WOMEN
1980	Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston, MA
1979	Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston, MA
Public art:
2002 -	SPIRIT IN THE TREES, an exhibition orf site-specific installation and sculpture Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, MA “Ancestral Memory”
2000-2002	DECORDOVA MUSEUM SCULPTURE PARK, Lincoln, MA “Between Heaven & Earth”
1975	Lawrence School, Brookline, Ma. Wood/fiberglass-resin relief. THE WINDOW, 6' x 6'.
AWARDS
1991, 1993	Aubrey Cartwright Foundation, New York, NY
1990	Massachusetts Arts Lottery Grant
1982, 1983	Artist-in-residence, sculpture. sponsored by Mass Council on Arts and Humanities
1980	Residency at Sculpturespace, Utica, NY
1973	CGraduate Assistantship, Mass College of Art
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2003	Monica Bohm-Duchen, “The Uses & Abuses of Photography in Holocaust-Related Art” in Image & Remembrance:Representation & the Holocaust. Hornstein & Jacobowitz, Eds. Indiana Univ. Press,p.226. Stephen Feinstein, “Memory and Re-Memory: American Installation Art & Holocaust Imagery in: Reclaiming Memory: Amer. Representations of the Holocaust, Pirjo Ahokas etal. Ed. Univ. of Turku, Turku Finland. P.95-97.
1/26/2000	The Boston Globe, ‘WITNESS’ GIVES VARIED VISIONS OF HOLOCAUST, C. Temin
1/28,2000	The Boston Phoenix, ART, JEWS, AND THE HOLOCAUST, Christopher Millis
1998	Bulletin Trimestriel de la Fondation Auschwitz. No. 60, July-Sept. 1998. Editions du Centre D’etudes et de Documentation, Bruxelles. THE MEMORY OF AUSCHWITZ IN CONTEMPORARY ART, Gabrielle Rossmer, pp. 189-196.
4/19/98	Hampshire Sunday Republican, HISTORY THROUGH AN ARTIST’S EYE by Gloria Russell
1/25/98	Albany Times-Union, REMEMBERING, NOT RECREATING THE LOST by Tim Cahill
1997	Matthew Baigell, Jewish American Artists & the Holocaust. Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick 1997 pp.98-99,fig.36.
9/19/96	The Boston Globe, “ANXIOUS INFERENCES”, reviewed by Cate McQuaid
Feb. 1993	Art News, BOSTON: GABRIELLE ROSSMER by Nancy Stapen.
11/27/92	The Boston Globe, SPOTLIGHT SHINES ON HAUNTING IMAGES, ETERNAL BONDS Nancy Stapen.
11/29/91	Weekend Avisen, Copenhagen, Denmark. EFTER KRYSTALNATTEN by Jonathan Schwartz (review)
1991	Bayernkurier, Munich, Germany KUNST AUS USA by Klaus Martin Wiese.
Feb.1,1991	The Jewish Advocate, SCULPTOR PROBES…PAST.
9/17/87	The Boston Globe, Ft. Point Arts Community …FINE SHOW AT FED RESERVE Christine Temin
OTHER EXPERIENCE
1998	Art selection panelist for Central Artery construction project.
1988-97	Board Member of Fort Point Arts Community.
1982	Participating judge for Scholastic Art Awards, Boston Globe: sponsor.
1980-1983	Guest artist at School of Museum of Fine Arts, U.Mass-Amherst, Berkshire Community College.
1972-1980	Teacher. Sculpture, Photography, Art history, Artist’s Workshops. Brookline Art Center.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
Nov. 2004	Visiting artist    Meditech Corp., Westwood, MA
Nov. 2000	Artist-panelist    Barnard Feminist Art Conference, New York, NY
Oct. 2000	Artist-Visitor    School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Aug. 2000	Artist-Participant    A Public Dialog: Artists & Social/Political Issues. Panel at Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington, MA
Jun. 1998	Panelist    LeadBoston, Boston, MA
Jan. 1998	Panelist    Museum,SUNY Albany, Albany, NY
Dec. 1997	Invited Presenter    Fondation Auschwitz, Brussels, Belgium
Feb. 1998	Visiting Speaker    Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Oct. 1995	Panelist    Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
EDUCATION
	Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA M.S. Brandeis University, Waltham, MA B.A.

 

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