Laura Von Rosk
Laura Von Rosk’s paintings depict an experience of a landscape. Memories or impressions are refined: a sand ditch along the highway, a gravel pit, a cultivated field, or just a peculiar bend in the road. Her most recent work stems from her role as field assistant on a scientific research expedition to Antarctica in the fall of 2011. By recombining, emphasizing, manipulating, or inventing elements of the landscape she explores the tension between natural forms and memory. “There is a tension between form and what’s going on in the real world. And the form (dips, ditches, open fields, etc.) isn’t just a product of what I see, but combines what I know about constructing paintings with some deep and as yet unconscious memory system with what I see in the landscape. There may be a story hidden in the painting, which I myself am still only vaguely aware of.”
Laura Von Rosk received her M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and her B.F.A. from the State University of New York at Purchase, NY. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally in both solo and group shows. Her awards include a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting, grants from the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, the Bernheim Foundation in Clermont, KY, a Full Fellowship residency at the Vermont Studio Center, and residencies at Yaddo, Blue Mountain Center, The Millay Colony, Centrum, and Dorland Mountain Arts Colony.
Artist Statement
“My paintings may be about a specific place, or a certain experience of a place, or a response to the work of other artists (most recently works by European early Renaissance masters). By using elements of landscape, mixing natural forms with memory and imagination, the images become “constructed” landscapes. Forms are repeated, emphasized, manipulated, or invented. There is a tension between form and what’s going on in the real world. The forms (lakes, ditches, open fields, holes, icebergs, glaciers, etc.) are not just a product of what I see, but combine what I know about constructing paintings with some deep and as yet unconscious memory system with what I see in the landscape. The paintings are small in scale (average dimensions 12 inches), but my goal is to create an intimate experience of a vast, expansive space.
In the autumn of 2011 traveled to Antarctica to work with biologist Dr. Sam Bowser and his research team. I was there to assist with the scientific research and dive teams and, in one way or another, incorporate this experience into my own work as a visual artist. Some of my recent paintings stem from those three months living in Antarctica.”