Works by Marcy Rosenblat
Marcy Rosenblat is an American abstract process painter. Her paintings and prints are layered, colorful and complex. Born in Chicago, Illinois, she currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Education
Rosenblat earned her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1981, and her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2010. She received a grant from the Women's Art Development Committee in 1998. She taught painting at Parsons School of Design from 1986 to 1989, and since 1995 has been an Adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY.
Technique
Rosenblat describes herself as having an affinity for process art, a method of art making in which predetermined systems and techniques largely determine the outcome of the work. The textured appearance of her paintings emanates from the intervention of common household products such as paper towels during the painting process. To begin each painting, she lays the canvas flat on a moveable easel then pours paint onto the surface. She then tilts the easel in predetermined ways, turning it then tilting it again, allowing the paint to drip down the surface. She then presses the paper towels or other textured products into the wet paint. The pressing leaves behind the imprint of the surface of the textured product, while simultaneously revealing the under layers of paint. It is a process of covering and revealing. Meanwhile, each successive layer of paint drips onto the sides of the canvas, so that in the end all colors used in the painting can be discovered on the periphery, even though some of them may have ultimately been obscured or removed from the surface.
Inspiration
Rosenblat is inspired by the idea of revelation and obfuscation- what we see versus what is hidden from us. She wants viewers to see her final product as a finished phenomenon, but also wants to offer them a chance to peek behind the curtain, so to speak. Each layer of paint is like a veil, through which viewers can see the inner workings of her craft. She is inspired by the idea that this will invite people to look more closely at things. Rosenblat is also inspired by the patterns she sees on ordinary surfaces, especially those not usually related to painting. That was the genesis of her choice to start using paper towels in her work, and in the same vein she often photographs the surfaces of the ground, the street, and objects she sees in the store then uses those photographs to createtextures and patterns that will serve as layers of color in her paintings and prints.
Artist Statement
“Like the person trying to see something through a curtain I continue to paint until I find clarity through the painting. I...use a household pattern like the pattern of a paper towel, as a structural device to suggest the layer between viewer and object. The pattern is just familiar enough not to get looked at directly and the pictorial illusion it creates causes another kind of blurring or obscuring...I want my paintings to exist at the point where the viewer has just enough clarity to want to see a little bit more.”
Exhibitions
Marcy Rosenblat has exhibited extensively, especially in and around New York City. Selected exhibitions include Fordham University, Galerie Berlin am Meer, The Rawls Museum, and the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. Her work has also been featured on Hyperallergic.
Solo exhibitions
2017
Blend Studio, Nashville Tenn.
2012
Rawls Museum, Common Object, Courtland,VA
2009
Smith College, Oresman Gallery, Northampton,MA
1983
Prince Street Gallery,NY,NY
Selected group exhibitions
2017
Novado Gallery,Marcy Rosenblat, Jim Osman & Gabe Brown Jersey City, New Jersey
Gallery North,The art of Eating, Setauket, NY
Rawls Museum, Courtland, Va
BCB Art, Winter Show, Hudson, NY
106 Van Buren, Talking Pictures, Brooklyn, NY
Sideshow Gallery, Sideshow Nation, Brooklyn, NY
2016
The Rosemont, Prelude, Brooklyn, NY
Centtotto, NOMENColorATURE, Brooklyn, NY
Art Helix, Invitational, Brooklyn NY
BRIC, Up for Debate, Brooklyn, NY
BCB Art, Winter Group, Hudson, NY
2015
Hewn Gallery, Girl Power, JC, New Jersey
BCB Art, Summer Group,Hudson, NY
La Giacanda, Brooklyn, NY
Drawing Rooms, The Big Small Show JC, New Jersey
Centotto Gallery,Thrice Legendary -Forever Thens, Brooklyn NY
Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College NY, NY or Forever Thens, Brooklyn NY
Art Helix Gallery,Type Indicators, Brooklyn, NY
Sideshow Gallery, Sideshow Nation Three, Circle The Wagons, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Centotto Gallery,Back IN Situ, Brooklyn, NY
The Painting Center Benifit, NY, NY
Ethan Pettit Gallery, Full House East, Brooklyn,NY
Full House, A visual dialogue between painters from MSP & NYC, Saint Paul, MN
Fashion Institute of Technology, New Views,NY,NY
Sideshow Gallery, Sideshow Nation II at the Alamo, Brooklyn, NY
2013
490 Atlantic Gallery, Nothing Like Painting Brooklyn
Sideshow Gallery, Sideshow Nation, Brooklyn, NY
2012
Fordham University Rockslide Sky, Curated by Carlene Sheehan, NY,NY
State University Plaza Gallery Faculty Art Exhibition, Albany, NY
2010
Galerie Berlin am Meer,Berlin,Germany
Salisbury University, Relevance,Salisbury,MD
2009
The Painting Center, Modern Romantic: Spiritual Expressions In Paint, NY,NY
2008
Selena Gallery, Long Island University,Brooklyn,NY
Brik Gallery, What’s In A Face, Catskill,NY
2007
Corscaden Barn, Keene Valley,NY
Fashion Institute of Technology, Imagined Sites,curated by Lyle Rexer,NY,NY
2006
Durst Organization, New Graphics, NY,NY
Vision Festival, 10th Anniversary Synagogue for the Arts NY,NY
2004
Schweinfurt Memorial Art Center, Auburn,NY
State University Plaza Gallery, Albany,NY
Sideshow, Brooklyn,NY
2003
Kouros Gallery,Water Currents,NY,NY
2002
Metaphor Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY
Tai Gallery,NY,NY
2001
Knitting Factory, Above and Below,NY,NY
1999
Gale Gates Gallery, Size Matters, Brooklyn,NY
Richard Anderson Gallery,Passions of Art, NY,NY
Vision Festival, Turf, NY, NY.
1997
PSA Showcase VIII, A Sense of Place,NY,NY
The Painting Center, Primal Substance, NY,NY
1996
92nd ST Y Gallery, Works on Paper, NY,NY
1994
The Painting Center, NY, Projects Room, Rosenblat/Brodsky
The Police Building, Signs of Life, NY,NY
1992
Tribeca148 Gallery, Beneath the Surface,NY,NY
1988
Contemporary Art at One Penn Plaza, Nature and Art: Paintings by 44 Women, Curated by Ronnie Cohen,NY,NY
1986
Contemporary Art at One Penn Plaza Short Stories,Curated by Judd Tully,NY,NY
1985
Ciancaglini Gallery,Summer Idyll: Bathers and Seascapes, NY,NY
City without Walls, Metro Show, Curated by Barry Blinderman,Jersey City,NJ
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City,MO
1984
Artists Choice Museum, NY,NY
Morehead Gallery, Greensboro,NC
1983
Frumkin Gallery, Bodies and Souls,NY,NY
1982
Morehead Gallery, Greensboro NC
1981
Kemper Gallery, Kansas City,Mo
Luminosity and Risk By Stephen Westfall, 2003
Inventing Difficulty by Jessica Greenbaum; Cover painting Gravity / The Way Things Are,2000
Turf, Essay By Lillie Wei,2001
A Sense of Place, Catalog Essay by Peter Pinchbeck, 1997
A Dozen Scratches On a Title, Catalog Essay By Raphael Rubinstein, 1992
Art World Magazine, April, 1988
Watercolor by Day,Michael Crespo, Guptill, NY, NY. 1987
Arts Magazine,Robert Godfrey,March,1984