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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
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
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2005 |
LynnArts, Lynn, MA. ANIMATED SOCIAL NARRATIVE: GABRIELLE ROSSMER
FPAC ARTISTS, Boston Convention Center, Boston, MA
NEBiolabs, Beverly, MA. GABRIELLE ROSSMER: SCULPTURE
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| 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
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1994 |
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NY. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT:3
Starr Gallery, Newton, MA Jewish Community Center. CREATIVITY & SPIRITUALITY
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1992 |
Space Gallery, Boston, Ma. IN SEARCH OF THE LOST OBJECT:2
Artist's Foundtn. Gallery, Boston, MA MIRROR, MIRROR
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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)
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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
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1984 |
Chesterwood Natl. Trust, Stockbridge, MA CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE
Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY SCULPTURESPACE:RECENT TRENDS
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1983 |
Honey Sharpe Gallery, Lenox, MA
Goethe Institute, Boston, MA GERMAN-AMERICAN ARTISTS
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1982 |
Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA FOCUS ON WOMEN |
1980 |
Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston, MA |
1979 |
Helen Shlien Gallery, Boston, MA |
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2002 - |
SPIRIT IN THE TREES, an exhibition orf site-specific installation and sculpture
Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston, MA “Ancestral Memory” |
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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
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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
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1973 |
CGraduate Assistantship, Mass College of Art |
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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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
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1998 |
Art selection panelist for Central Artery construction project.
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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
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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
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Aug. 2000 |
Artist-Participant A Public Dialog: Artists & Social/Political Issues.
Panel at Simon’s Rock College, Great Barrington, MA |
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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 |
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Oct. 1995 |
Panelist Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH |
EDUCATION |
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Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA M.S.
Brandeis University, Waltham, MA B.A.
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