Mia Westerlund Roosen
The work of Mia Westerlund Roosen will be the focus of Betty Cuningham Gallery’s booth (C2) at the 2022 edition of The Art Show, organized by the Art Dealers Association of America. The Art Show is held at the Park Avenue Armory, located at Park Avenue and 67th Street in New York City. The artist will be present Sunday November 6, 12 – 3pm.
Since 2016, I have been addicted to the news, horrified by the unbelievable march towards the destruction of our political, social, and natural world. And yet, the times seem more luxurious than ever.
—Mia Westerlund Roosen
So inspires Mia Westerlund Roosen’s latest sculptures. The works convey vulnerability and a body element that starkly contrast the world in which she constructed them.
Mia Westerlund Roosen emerged as a sculptor in the late 1960’s, when Minimalism was the dominant artistic movement. She chose the organic over the industrial and geometric, engaging with the language of the human body both physically and emotionally.
Today’s current events have brought a new, chilling side to Westerlund Roosen’s recent work. Included in this exhibition is Box V from the series of five, similarly sized, rectangular sculptures all resembling child sized coffins. All are composed of epoxy resin— Westerlund chose the resin for its “more seductive, more vulnerable and luxurious quality.” Each box is distinguished by a different skin-toned shade and an individual interior. Box V has a soft pink tone and it interior reveals a sutured cut.
Standing in the center of the booth are two monumental columns: Column I and Column II: one eight feet tall and the other nine. Both are made of flannel and resin and resemble commanding caryatids, clothed in pleated drapery. Their impressive height, and the way they seem to emanate light through translucent skin convey both strength and protection while simultaneously emanating a vulnerability and fragility.
Included in this exhibition is also a suite of ink and graphite on paper drawings titled Guantanamo I – VI. Each drawing depicts a segment of razor wire fencing, another symbolic statement about the human rights violations which took place at Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. Done in 2011, these drawings demonstrate how Westerlund Roosesn’s political sentiments highlighted in her more recent sculptures are deeply rooted in her artistic practice.
Mia Westerlund Roosen has received several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship. Her work can be seen in numerous public collections, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; and the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY. She divides her time between New York City and Buskirk, NY.
An online viewing room will accompany this exhibition. In addition, a selection illustrated catalogs featuring Mia Westerlund Roosen’s work will be available at the booth.
Aftermath, Mia Westerlund Roosen’s fifth show with Betty Cuningham, is one of the sculptor’s most overtly political ventures, even if she has consistently advocated for feminist, environmental, and other topical issues over the years. Her perennial engagement with materials, objectness, and process continues to impress.
