ALEX ROSE
another furrow in the forehead
June 5 – 28, 2014
Reception: Thursday June 5 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
THE WORK
Alex Rose works outside of norms of artistic production and exhibition. Rose accumulates old books, newspapers, magazines, diaries, butterfly wings, ribbons and other objects that feed an obsessive literary and pictorial production. Notebooks are filled with images that are recycled and re-thought as iconography. Some of the resulting work is shared; most is burned or buried, documented in photographs.
The temporary nature and physical trials of the work mirror Rose’s adolescent protagonists, who often seem to be subject to humiliation, torture or enslavement at the hands of sinister but absent others. The distressing subject matter and ambiguous tone is balanced by the artist’s evident empathy for his subjects, and by the emotional and formal beauty of the work.
THE ARTIST
Alex Rose (Irish, b. 1970 in Limerick, Ireland) has exhibited in Ireland, the UK, Germany, France, Turkey, Australia, Brazil, Belgium, Canada, and the United States. Solo exhibitions include A Most Hatedman (2014) and Mono No Aware (2012) at envoy enterprises, New York; Action with Spirits at Kantor Gallery, Los Angeles (2010); and Alcoholic Perfume, VOLTA, New York (2009). He has recently participated in group exhibitions at Galeria Nara Roesler in Brazil, the Visual Centre for Contemporary Art in Ireland, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen in Belgium, Queen Elizabeth Hall in the UK, and Triple V in Paris, France, among others. Rose currently lives and works in Cork, Ireland.
PRESS
Another Furrow in the Forehead - Willamette Week
Review: Alex Rose at Upfor - The Oregonian
Outside the (White) Box: Alex Rose - Interview Magazine