Stephanie Rose
The Eternal Return
August 25, 2012–January 27, 2013
Reception: September 22, 2012
Albany Institute of History & Art
125 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12210
The Albany Institute of History & Art is pleased to present the first museum exhibition and catalog of portrait paintings by Stephanie Rose. The Eternal Return will feature approximately 23 stunning portraits of distinguished poets, novelists, art critics, filmmakers, photographers, performers, art collectors and philanthropists. Installed in three museum galleries (1250 square feet), Rose’s portraits will be on view from August 26, 2012 until January 27, 2013. The reception is on Saturday, September 22, 2012. In addition to new work, the exhibition will include loans from public and private collections.
Best known for her large-scale, painterly abstractions, Rose began painting a series of remarkable portraits in 1996. To set the stage the exhibition will include several abstract works by Rose with chairs as central subjects that will reveal the deep relationship between her abstractions and portraits. Rose’s sitters are classically rendered with subjects surrounded by theatrical scenes of invented imagery, hallmarks of the artists’ style. Through her emphasis on the gaze, the portraits directly engage the audience. According to Rose, “The painting serves as an envoy to the viewer, an induction to reverie and contemplation and wonder.” Her works also anticipate “the viewer’s expectation of gaining insight into meaning in a work of art; the real significance of which is that it is one of the ways that people reflect on their own lives.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Elizabeth C. Baker, Editor In Chief at Art in America from 1974 to 2008 and currently Editor-At-Large; Carter Ratcliff, author, poet, art critic and contributing editor at Art in America; the distinguished art historian James K. Kettlewell, Curator Emeritus, The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York and Professor Emeritus of the History of Art, Skidmore College; and with a foreword by Albany Institute’s Chief Curator, Tammis K. Groft, who also organized the exhibition.
Gallery talks will be offered in conjunction with the exhibition. For more information, please call 518 463 4478.
The exhibition will be featured on the Museum’s website.
Additional information and examples of paintings by Stephanie Rose can be seen at the artist’s website.
About the artist
Stephanie Rose, of New York City and more recently Hudson, New York, and a graduate of Skidmore College in Saratoga, has a 39-year exhibition history, which includes 22 solo exhibitions in New York at The Dactyl Foundation, E.M. Donahue Gallery, Getler/Pall Gallery, Betty Cunningham Gallery, Susan Caldwell Inc., The Soho Playhouse and fiction/nonfiction; and elsewhere at Apel Galeri, Istanbul, Moss/Chumley Gallery, Dallas, van Straaten Gallery and One Illinois Exhibition Space, Chicago, among others. Regionally, she has had solo exhibitions in Hudson at Nicole Fiacco Gallery, The Hudson Opera House, Sarah Y. Rentchler Gallery, Carrie Haddad Gallery and Studio 249 Ltd.
Ms. Rose’s work is represented internationally in numerous public collections. Her paintings are included in the permanent collections of The Neuberger Museum of Art, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, The Denver Art Museum, The Tang Museum, Skidmore College, The Castellani Art Museum, The Reading Public Museum, and The Albany Institute of History & Art, among others. She has received several awards for her work, including the U.S. Consul General Istanbul, Turkey Invitational Travel Grant, the New School for Social Research Faculty Development Fund Grant, and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation Grant. She has also held teaching positions at Parsons School of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Pratt Institute.
