The hawks perch in a tall tree. A tree that grows and changes each time they land in it, build a nest in it, perch on it balancing in the wind. In the late afternoon, they are illuminated in such a way that they both blend into this tree and appear translucent simultaneously, much like the branches of the tree that are illuminated in this late afternoon light. How extraordinary that I was given the opportunity to learn about glass, that the sandblasted pigmented glass birds are illuminated in the same way that the birds I cohabit with appear to be. That the recycled Provençal stone seems like an eternal beam of light, much like the streams of light that filter through the clerestories in the studio. The light passing through the studio taught me to adapt to a new way of working. I learned to work with the light as teacher, rather than trying to control the lighting conditions. Wouldn’t it be grand if we were that responsive to the changes that one’s life brings our way. What aging can say about youth, what light can say about darkness, what animals can guide us towards if we listen. What if this knowledge were in fact second nature to us. We are, in fact, composed of two natures, which seems to me so much like the passage in the Upanishads.
- Jane Rosen
JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING – MAYA FRODEMAN GALLERY (formerly TAYLOE PIGGOTT GALLERY) is pleased to present Posted / Turning, a solo exhibition of work by artist Jane Rosen, on view August 2nd through September 15th, 2024. This exhibition is accompanied by a 140-page printed catalog, with an interview by Richard Whittaker. An opening reception will be held on Friday, August 2nd, from 5 to 8pm. All are welcome.
Posted / Turning presents the artist as she is meant to be, a true maestra at the height of her prowess. The exhibition presents new work from Jane Rosen, a celebrated sculptor and draughtswoman, bringing together colossal feats of stone carving with innovative handblown glasswork and her signature layered sumi-e ink drawings. Some of the work, such as Sahara Falcon and Red-Shouldered Hawk, sit on magnificent pedestals hewn from incredibly rare Beaumanière stone salvaged from a now-closed French quarry, while other works incorporate collected stones she has been bringing to life over the course of thirty years. Rita (for Hayworth) and Sophia (for Loren), Jane’s “glamour girls” and birds she’s called “the pieces of a lifetime,” are hand-blown glass birds that were rolled in marble and carved hot at 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. Each is perched on stone akin to the “eternal beam of light” Rosen refers to in her artist statement above.
Jane Rosen contains multitudes. Equal parts artist, sculptor, philosopher, historian and humorist, Rosen has spent a lifetime shaping the world around her, whether working on paper, in handblown glass, and with stone. Rosen is fascinated with cultures like the Innuits, Native Americans, and Egyptians. For these groups, art was a by-product of an investigation of being and mortality rather than an aesthetic pursuit. For Rosen, as for sculptor Auguste Rodin, “Revelation comes only to those who perceive with their eyes and their minds. Everything is contained in what surrounds us. Everything is given in nature, which is imbued with eternal, uninterrupted movement.” She lives and breathes her sculpture; her drawings bring the sublimity of nature to the surface.
She cites Renaissance masters like Michelangelo and da Vinci as influences. Like these artists, Rosen excels across several different mediums, including sculpture, painting, and drawing. Traces of all three can be found in each; upon close observation, a sculpture has been stained or a work on paper has had several layers of wax or marble mix sculpted into its surface. Speaking to artist and writer Richard Whittaker, Jane speaks of ‘seeing’ as “a shift in cognition…where something in me listens, but not with my ears. There’s another kind of listening. It’s kind of like from the knees up to the shoulders is like a receiver or a satellite dish allowing something to come in almost through my middle.” She continues, “These pieces become representations of a seeing both in and out. And the light, which I resisted enormously, became the teacher.”
Rosen was born in New York City, where she grew up and began her career as an artist. Despite finding early success in galleries and a prestigious teaching position in the city, Rosen found herself captivated by the accessibility of nature on a visit to the West Coast. She eventually relocated permanently to San Gregorio, California, on the coast south of San Francisco, where she keeps her studio and resides on a horse ranch frequently visited by the birds and mammals you see in her work.
Rosen has been selected by the American Academy of Arts and Letters for inclusion on several occasions in their Annual Invitational in New York, a prestigious exhibition juried by some of the greatest artists of our time; she was awarded the Purchase Award in 2010. Other distinctions include the Full Award in Sculpture from the National Endowment for the Arts (1980) and the Full Award in Sculpture from CAPS (1982); Rosen also received the Madein/Luso American Foundation Grant (1988). A masterful and sought after teacher, Rosen has taught at numerous elite institutions, including the School of Visual Arts and Bard College in New York, Lacoste School of the Arts in France, Stanford University, and the University of California at Berkeley. Rosen’s work has been reviewed in the New York Times, ArtForum, Art in America, and Art News. Her work has been exhibited across the United States. It is in numerous public and private collections including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Aspen Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Chevron Corporation, the collection of Grace Borgenicht, JP Morgan Chase Bank, the Luso American Foundation, the Mallin Collection, the Mitsubishi Corporation, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. An upcoming solo retrospective will open next year at the Bakersfield Art Museum, as will an invitational group exhibition of sculptors to be held next summer at The Church, in Sag Harbor, NY. Jane Rosen’s monograph, Dual Nature, was published by Pointed Leaf Press in 2021.
In collaboration with Maya Frodeman Gallery and the artist-founded non-profit Art into Acres, an artwork by the artist, Turtle Bird (2009-2022), will be donated to support new large-scale land conservation. Rosen's deep exploration of nature will support the creation of a new National Protected area. The artwork donation will receive 300% in matching funds.
