Barbara Rossi

Barbara Rossi is an American visual artist. She was one of the original Chicago Imagists; a group of artists who turned from abstraction to figuration in the '60s and '70s. Her early works were highly abstracted works in colored pencil and graphite.  She later became interested in the figure, and by the late '70s she shifted mediums, painting on masonite and canvas. Known for her cartoonish style, Rossi's drawings and paintings are often associated with outsider art; showing alongside artists Karl Wirsum and Gary Panter. 

Rossi recieved her BFA from St. Xavier College in 1964. Her style flourished after taking courses and recieving her MFA at the University of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1970, where she now teaches. In 1982, she was awarded an Artist's Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been exhibited at a number of galleries and museums, including the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and The Pit Gallery in Los Angeles. Her work appears in permanent collections at the Art Institute of Chicago; Madison Museum of Contemporary Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C. She lives and works in Berwyn, Illinois.