Connie Rose Jan 5, 2016WK1

Connie Rose

Photography, Portraits, Abstract Surrealism

Frosty Morning - 2008

Exhibitions:
London, Bristol, Vancouver, New York City, El Salvador, Mexico City.

Connie Rose was chosen as a first stage finalist for Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year 2014, a highly acclaimed British TV show where the winner was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery for their permanent collection.
Rose’s abstract work has been featured in several art publications and is in both editions of the ‘Yo New York’ book for the MoMa Ps1. Rose’s New York studio has been featured in Forbes and her work is collected worldwide. Rose murals can be found in New York, London
and Central America.

Rose has been in numerous group shows internationally. In October 2014 Rose had her first solo show in Mayfair London and has an upcoming 2016 solo show in Manhattan New York.
Rose has an art studio on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York and in London, UK.

Rose’s abstract work is a fresh and exciting mix of abstraction and surrealism with a contemporary mix of mediums. Music and vipassana meditation is a key component to the creation of Rose’s paintings which take the viewer on a colorful journey of electrifying visual energy to meditative imagined worlds.

Rose’s earlier abstract work uses suggested landscapes to touch on the human experience and often foreboding and existential induced emotion.
Portraits are a memory captured and can give an enticing glimpse into the nature of the sitter and who they are.

A good painting can go deeper than a photograph by adding to the image in a way that a photograph cannot. Perhaps this has to do with the touch of the human hand; the time and concentration it takes to paint realistically whilst still allowing the image to be recognised as a painting. It’s the small flicks of the brush that can cast truth on a canvas,

That extra speckle of light, that sparkle in the eye, each brushstroke of colour carefully considered. It is special.

Throughout history, royalty, the wealthy, and those people that the artists found so intriguing that they had to be immortalised, were kept and held forever in a painted portrait.

“I seek to portray the people I paint sensitively whilst capturing their essence and personality. When I paint a portrait the process is slow, quiet and calm. When I step back and see the personality of the sitter evolve and arrive on the canvas the rush of adrenaline and achievement is what keeps me painting portraits again and again.”

Much of Rose’s art has a strong affinity to people and the human journey. In 2009 Rose painted portraits and exhibited them with headphones playing audio interviews with the subjects talking about their perception of their own eccentricity. In 2011 Rose made a film about human relationships consisting of interviews that she conducted around the world.

The film was exhibited playing in an interactive installation which was situational and indicative of the film’s content. Rose’s art has also involved facilitating discussion as she believes art is about perceiving something differently. Rose’s early public art in NYC and San Francisco involved documenting peoples’ interaction to the art itself.