Steve Rossi
Steve Rossi’s recent collages address current political issues in the United States by juxtaposing disparate images that are associated with the left and the right in American politics. His work calls attention to cultural and political differences, yet within these disorienting spaces a context is presented where dialogue between opposing viewpoints can occur. Rossi’s collages are composed of laser printed found images taken from the internet, paper doily stencils, and spray paint. He questions our familiar associations within everyday experiences through re-contextualizing utilitarian objects and spaces. Focus is placed on ideas related to the hand-made and the mass-produced, the permanent and the ephemeral, and notions of community and shared experience in contemporary culture.
Rossi's pencil drawings of ladders are either ascending or descending, appearing and disappearing through a dense fog created by the white of the paper. The ladder has been a motif in his work for several years and was inspired by the non-hierarchical organizational structure of the Occupy Wall Street movement. For Rossi, the symbol of a ladder is drawn upon extensively to question value systems and "the ladder of success" as it relates to the egalitarian nature of the American dream, personal aspirations, collective losses, and the …
Steve Rossi’s recent collages address current political issues in the United States by juxtaposing disparate images that are associated with the left and the right in American politics. His work calls attention to cultural and political differences, yet within these disorienting spaces a context is presented where dialogue between opposing viewpoints can occur. Rossi’s collages are composed of laser printed found images taken from the internet, paper doily stencils, and spray paint. He questions our familiar associations within everyday experiences through re-contextualizing utilitarian objects and spaces. Focus is placed on ideas related to the hand-made and the mass-produced, the permanent and the ephemeral, and notions of community and shared experience in contemporary culture.
Rossi's pencil drawings of ladders are either ascending or descending, appearing and disappearing through a dense fog created by the white of the paper. The ladder has been a motif in his work for several years and was inspired by the non-hierarchical organizational structure of the Occupy Wall Street movement. For Rossi, the symbol of a ladder is drawn upon extensively to question value systems and "the ladder of success" as it relates to the egalitarian nature of the American dream, personal aspirations, collective losses, and the spaces in between.
Rossi’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries, including the Jules Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL; the Fine Art Gallery at Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY; Wassaic Project, Wassaic, NY; Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ; Rockland Center for the Arts, Nyack, NY; Queens Museum, Open Engagement Conference, Queens, NY; Bronx Art Space, Bronx, NY; Art in Odd Places, New York, NY; Dorsky Curatorial Projects, LIC, NY; NURTUREart, Brooklyn, NY; and the Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster, NJ. In 2018 he was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT. Rossi is currently an adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design and at Westchester Community College. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz. He grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and currently lives in Beacon, NY.
Courtesy of Matteawan Gallery
