rosalind shaffer

About the Artist

Creating art is a journey, and it can be the means to a search for balance and direction. Through the use of earthen materials,  references to memories and contemporary life are explored. At  times I have taken a quiet, reflective path as with my earlier sculpture and Raku pieces, while recently  I have felt a need to create a body of work that is more uplifting and exuberant with a more humorous commentary on the human condition. At present that seems to be the best way to cope with our conflicted and uncertain world.  All the work, however, is about the continuing discovery we experience as we travel through life. Currently, my work has a more narrative quality, leaving viewers with their personal interpretations.

 When I  first discovered the Ancient Japanese technique of Raku, I was drawn to the beauty and the complexity created by this exciting firing process. Intricately crackled patterning occurs from extreme temperature changes, with a richness of colors and textures created from the black carbon and the minerals in the glazes that  burst through to the surface  during the firing process. No two pieces are ever alike, though all embrace a timeless essence- both ancient and contemporary at the same time.

I have followed artistic pursuits for as long as I can remember, and I have always found the interaction of negative space and sculptural form especially intriguing. Though I first started out as a a painter, I soon desired to pull the images beyond the flat plane of the canvas. I began to work in wood, creating figurative painted wood constructions that were meant to work in the environmental spaces in which they were displayed.  I eventually found the flat planes of cut-out shapes somewhat limiting; lacking  the dimensionality that I sought, and  I discovered that clay was the perfect organic medium, allowing for the fluidity I was seeking to create more sinuous form. 

 Born and raised in New York, I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting from Syracuse University and was in the MFA Program for painting at Brooklyn College. Shortly after, the door to the fine artworld opened for me when I became affiliated with Soho 20 Gallery in New York City and the J. Rosenthal Gallery in Chicago. At the same time I cultivated a parallel career in fabric design, and though this paid the bills, the  fine art was always my truer passion. Pattern design has had an important influence on my work,  in my focus on the textures and patterns that I paint in underglazes,carve or impress on many of my sculptures and vessels.

Biography

EDUCATION

Syracuse University BFA

Brooklyn College MFA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Gallery 66 NY, Cold Spring N.Y.- 2014

McDaris Fine Art, Hudson, N.Y. – 2014, 2015

Soho 20 Gallery, N.Y.C., N.Y.    -  1980,1983-1990

J. Rosenthal Fine Arts, Chicago, IL- 1985,1990,1994

New York University Lubin Center, N.Y.C.- 1988

                                          SELECTED GROUP and TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS

 Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT- 2001-“68th Art of the Northeast” 2018

Paul Scott Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ-3/2013, 1/2014

Gallery 66 N.Y., Cold Spring, NY-  “Echoes of the Earth”  May, 2013

Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ- “Groundbreaking: The Women of the Sylvia Sleigh Collection”- 1/2011

Beechwood Arts, Westport, CT- “Vibrations-Mind, Body, Spirit-  June, 2013

Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ- “Groundbreaking: The Women of the Sylvia Sleigh Collection”- 1/2011

 De Young Museum, San Francisco, CA- 1983

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Fla.

Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY-“Figuratively”- 1982

Continued...

Marymount College, NY-“Commission for the Status of Women”

Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY-“Year of the Woman”