Annabeth Rosen

(From: www.aber.ac.uk/~cerwww//gendered/biographies/pretsell.htm 7-11-08)

Annabeth Rosen (1957-) was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is noted for her exuberantly modeled reliefs and brightly colored slipware. She trained at New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University gaining a BFA (1974-1978). Subsequently she studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan for an MFA. The manner in which she was taught at Alfred University on the foundation program had a profound effect on her creative work and teaching. The teaching was team-taught and conceptual, allowing the students to be creatively independent. It was while she was at Cranbrook Academy that she started making big slabs that leaned against the wall and were painted on both sides.

She does not consider that the work she makes fits into either the category of pottery or sculpture but likes to classify it as three-dimensional clay objects. Although the plate forms that she makes are obviously rooted in the traditional ideas of function she does not align herself with this area of ceramics. All aspects of clay and the process of making engage her and the endless potential for metamorphosis of clay continue to intrigue her. She works quickly cutting, shaping and layering, often reincorporating the remnants and firing her work up to six or seven times. She has taught since 1987 and since 1997 has held the Robert Arneson Endowed Chair at California College of Arts and Crafts, Davis.

She has taken part in numerous workshops and has lectured in America since 1988. She presently holds an Endowed Chair at the University of California. A recipient of prestigious arts awards she has twice received a National Endowment for the Arts, Craft Fellowship and a Pew Fellowship among others. She has shown her work extensively in America. In 1993 Aberystwyth Arts Centre showed her work in the exhibition The American Way.

About Annabeth Rosen

Alison Britton 'The Lost & The Free: Continuity and Disruption in Ceramic Art' The American Way, Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, 1993

Scott Chamberlain and Betty Woodman 'Views on use: function in American ceramics' Ceramic Review 142, July/August 1993, pp 24-26

Barbara Milman 'Introducing Annabeth Rosen' Davis Art, Fall 1997, pp1-2

Penelope Shackleton 'A Voyage in Rosen's Ceramic Visions' The Davis Enterprise: Weekend, November 20 1997

Peter Schjeldahl 'Ceramics and Americanness' The American Way, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth, 1993

(http://www-dateline.ucdavis.edu/022500/Dl_chairs.html 7-11-08)

Rosen, who joined the UC Davis art faculty in 1997, was presented the Robert Arneson Chair in Ceramics. The chair, the first in the nation devoted to ceramics, was established through the contributions of more than 300 people who wanted to perpetuate the memory and achievements of Arneson, a longtime professor at UC Davis.

She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a Master of Fine Art Degree from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Since then, Rosen has led a productive teaching and artistic career. Her works have been featured in more than 50 exhibitions, ranging from Vermont to Florida, New York City to London and Mallorca, Spain. Her work forms significant parts of private collections in the United States, England and Wales.

She has presented six major solo shows since 1986 and is a prolific author of scholarly articles and reviews and is an often-requested lecturer.

(http://www.pewarts.org/92/Rosen/bottom.html 7-11-08)

Pew Fellowships in the Arts (PFA), a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage and established by The Pew Charitable Trusts in 1991, awards grants to artists working in a wide variety of performing, visual, and literary disciplines.

Education

1981 Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.F.A.

1978 New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, B.F.A.

Annabeth Rosen's works are frequently characterized by explosions of rich, thick patterning -- like a page of medieval marginalia illuminated by a bolt of lightning. Her decorations tend toward the massive and emphatic, sometimes closely mimicking nature, other times abstracting foliated forms into curves and ribs of sheer linear geometry. Ms. Rosen's earthenware forms covered in white slip are often glazed with intense, highly reflective lead glazes that create effusive riots of color on their active surfaces. Even in her most restrained plate-forms, there is tension between formal order and expressive gesture, as if to be too merely perfect would not be enough for the artist. It's better -- and more -- complete to show the life that animates forms. Ms. Rosen received her B.F.A. from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1978 and an M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1981. Her awards include two National Endowment for the Arts Craftsman Fellowships, a Pennsylvania Council for the Arts Craftsman Fellowship, and a Michigan Potters Association Award. She has exhibited regionally and nationally, including Jessica Berwind Gallery in Philadelphia and Dorothy Weiss Gallery in San Francisco. Ms. Rosen's work was included in the exhibition and publication "The American Way: Views on Use, Function in American Ceramics" curated by Scott Chamberlin and Betty Woodman. She has taught at the University of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, and Temple University.

Professional Accomplishments

1998 Group exhibition, Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.

1997 Three-person exhibition, Yezerski Gallery, Boston, Mass.

1997 "Annabeth Rosen: Selected Ceramic Works," solo exhibition, Richard L. Nelson Gallery & Fine Arts Collection, University of California, Davis

1997 "Ceramic Still Life: The Common Object," exhibition, Oliver Art Center, CCAC, Oakland, Calif.

1997 Group exhibition, Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.

1997 Exhibition, Pewabic Pottery, Detroit, Mich.

1997 Group exhibition, Ann Nathan Gallery, Chicago, Ill.; SOFA, Miami, Fla.

1996 Group exhibition, Dorothy Weiss Gallery, San Francisco, Calif.

1996 "New England Ceramic Artists," group exhibition, The Boston Athenaeum, Mass.

1996 "New (York) Visions," exhibition, David Beitzel Gallery, New York

1996 Exhibition, Maple Hill Gallery, West Stockbridge, Mass.

1995 "The Narrated and Decorated Surface," exhibition with Peter Gourfain, Greenwich House, New York

1988 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Artist Fellowship

1986, 1979 National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Fellowship