of unconditional love, that is expected of, but not a reality of, family." These pieces are "deliberately imperfect, damaged, and irregular like the human condition, pulled by conflicting desires for independence and dependency, freedom and obligation."

Arcadia (happiness plays on shuffle 24/7) is an assemblage of accumulation, consumption, and destruction -- a folksy-crude parody inspired by computer gaming, Spotify, and home videos of cats from YouTube. In this mediated experience of nature, reduced to floral-patterned fabrics and digitized kittens, animals are consumed as constructs of cuteness, an addictive escape to an interiorized "happy place." The images of the kittens reflect a culturally induced need for self-medication.  An extension of the ideas elaborated in Arcadia, I ♥ Kitties are layered, screened, Instagram-perfected reproductions of captured kitty heads, the new celebrity icons of the digital age, at once eye candy and hypnotic drug. 

In speaking about her work, Barosh said, "Questions of value including perceived aesthetic value, are part of the narrative. Ideas about originality and authenticity are mocked while pointing to larger cultural failures that have to do with consumption and ecological disaster. I talk about materialism, accepted notions of value, and resulting anxieties through my work -- subjects that are relevant to everyone. While socio-economic questions are raised around ideas about women's labor and value in the use of craftwork, 'value' also becomes a projection of ourselves onto things like cute animals on the Internet, mythic American landscapes, and the built environment." 

Miyoshi Barosh (1959-2019) made work in a wide range of materials and techniques that humorously expose the socio-political underpinnings of American culture.  Her work has been exhibited in New York and Los Angeles, at Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, and The Pit in Glendale.  Recent exhibitions include Thread, Long Beach Museum of Art (2019) and Material as Metaphor at the former Craft & Folk Art Museum, now Craft Contemporary (2017).  Notable exhibitions include the 2015 C.O.L.A. Exhibition, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles; Body Conscious: Southern California Fiber at the Craft in America Center, Los Angeles; Women, War, and Industry at the San Diego Museum of Art, and The Small Loop Show at the Fellows of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. 

Barosh was a 2015 recipient of both a Guggenheim Artist Fellowship and the City of Los Angeles Individual Artist Fellowship (C.O.L.A) and an Artist-in-Residence at the Pilchuck Glass School.  After receiving a BFA in painting at Rhode Island School of Design, she moved to New York, where she became the first Managing Editor of BOMB magazine.  Upon receiving an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Barosh became involved with A.R.T. Press, publishing and editing her own arts journal, Now Time, as well as becoming involved in the artist collaborative, Project X.  She died in Long Beach last February and a memorial in her honor was held at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles in July 2019.