SOLO EXHIBIT OF PRINTS BY CAROL ROSEN ON VIEW AT WILLIAM PATERSON UNIVERSITY

Large-scale prints by Carol Rosen, a New Jersey artist whose complex works deal with images of the Holocaust, are on view in a one-person show in the South Gallery of the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University in Wayne through October 15, 2004. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. A reception for the exhibit will be held on Sunday, September 19 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Rosen, a resident of Califon, began using images of the Holocaust in her works after a visit to memorial sites in Jerusalem several years ago. Employing the medium of collage, she cuts images from larger photographs, which are then layered and printed. Tension is achieved through severe cropping, the tilting of space, and often the appearance of things pulling apart.

“For Rosen, the bond between past and present is important – we must never forget, never bury the past or the truth,” writes Kristen Accola in an essay for the exhibit catalog. “Combining new and old art techniques symbolically creates this bond.”

Many events are depicted in Rosen’s photographs: a row of boys sits on a dirty sidewalk, waiting; wallpaper crumbles around broken windows; train tracks speed through an imprisoned knee. There are children and graves, people naked and clothed.

“Carol Rosen has accomplished what few artists have managed to do on the subject of the Holocaust,” Accola says. “Her work lets the viewer breathe in and consciously absorb the knowledge of an unspeakable event without asphyxiation. The collages are complex at first sight but upon inspection are images of bare simple truth.”

Rosen’s works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the metropolitan area, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C., the Brooklyn Museum and the Newark Museum. A graduate of Hunter College, she has won several awards, including two fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her works are held in the collections of the New Jersey State Museum, Smithsonian Institution National Collection of Fine Arts, and the Newark Museum, among others.

The exhibit is one of three shows on view concurrently in the Ben Shahn Galleries. On view in the Court Gallery is “Siggraph,” the 2004 traveling exhibition of the latest in computer-based art and digital art. Mixed media works on paper by Nancy Egol Nikkal are on view in the East Gallery.

This exhibit is made possible in part by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

For additional information, please call the Ben Shahn Galleries at William Paterson University, 973-720-2654.

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For Further Information, contact:

Mary Beth Zeman, Director, Public Relations 973-720-2966

9/16/04