Exhibits Associate Curates and Contributes to Folkland Exhibit at Portland Public Library
Artist Andy Rosen, working on his UNPACK installation
With all of the talented staff working under the roof at the Children’s Museum & Theatre of Maine in Portland, it’s a wonder that it stays on. Writers, artists, performers, stage managers, and costume designers all work here and we love to celebrate their contributions to our community.
Exhibits Associate Andy Rosen is curating a show called FolkLand at the Portland Public Library that opens on First Friday October 4, from 5-7 pm. The FolkLand show is described as “crafting a new kind of folklore” where featured artists “tell a story about the natural world now, threatened by change, still rife with mystery and wonder. Their works ask us to revisit and reclaim our relationship with the world around us.”
In addition to curating the show, Andy Rosen is exhibiting a piece called STRAPPED in FolkLand. Andy said, “STRAPPED is a kind of portrait that examines the body as a shelter trying to hold itself together. Juxtaposing a bear (the ancient king of the forest) with myself, I wanted to explore a fantasy of our separateness from the thing we call nature. I’ve chosen a kind of abstraction of an anatomical model as a framework to translate the bear as a body from the inside out. Skeleton to exterior.”
To produce this dramatic work of art, STRAPPED, Andy used building construction, model making, and wooden toy making techniques.
About his work, Andy said, “I’m interested in the friendly and peaceful view of rural life as portrayed by children’s storybooks and folk art of New England. Such benevolence feels in conflict with our modern relationship with the environment.”
Rosen’s body of work treating these themes has been prominent on the Portland waterfront. TREAD, a sculpture installation of deer immersed in rising and falling tides, was funded in large part by a grant from the Union of Concerned Scientists and donations from the Maine Jewish Museum, The University of New England and the Maine Arts Commission. The UNPACK installation of wolves on an abandoned pier and pilings on the Portland waterfront riveted crowds for months. This was supported by the Kindling Fund, a regranting initiative from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Maine Arts Commission and local businesses. UNPACK later went on to be installed in the gallery courtyard at Jim Kempner Fine Arts (New York, NY),
For more information about our talented exhibits associate, visit https://andy-rosen.com/.