ALICIA ROTHMAN
Alicia Rothman received her MFA in printmaking and drawing from Indiana University, Bloomington. She has a BA from Hunter College, NYC and Binghamton University and graduated from Music & Art H.S. in NYC. She has taught drawing at NYU SCPS, Hunter College, and conducted drawing workshops at the Art Students League in NYC in Dec. 2007, 2011, 2013, National Academy of Design, Fifth Ave. NYC 2008. Rothman was associate instructor at Indiana University and received a Ford Foundation Grant there. She exhibited her work in numerous group and solo shows including Dillon Gallery (New York, NY)1998-2005; Lanoue Fine Art (Boston, MA); Laurel Tracey Gallery (NJ); Thomas Deans (Atlanta, GA); Pepper Gallery (London, UK); Nadia Waterfield (Andover, UK) and currently Susan Eley Fine Art, NYC. Her work was in Royal Academy London Exhibitions, Summers 2012, 2015, National Academy Faculty exhibits, Painting Center in Chelsea, NYC in 2016, Butler Institute of Art, Governors Island Art Fair 2009 in NYC. Her work was reviewed in "Artists to Watch in Art in America" during the Fair. Rothman was commissioned to design the Hampton Classic Poster in 2003, HITS Horse Shows cover in 2010 and White House Easter Display for New York in 2002. Her work is in the collections of Muscarelle Museum of Art, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, The White House, Prudential Bache Securities, Inc., Binghamton University Art Museum and many private individuals. The artist is represented by Susan Eley Fine Art and Thomas Deans in Atlanta.
“My unique style of painting and drawing has developed a full vocabulary of mark-making using printmaking, silkscreen, hand-cut stencils, relief, intaglio, combined with painting in oil on panel. She makes her own handmade templates, digital pattern-making, to create patterns that enliven her work. Sheu uses dots and x's to simplify the work. Limiting the palette to black and white is a method of simplifying the process too.
Work in black and white often has to be reworked over and over again. What remains can be the most interesting part. Samuel Beckett said: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’
Influences range from ancient wall paintings, Byzantine mosaics, medieval, and renaissance art, Breughel, Islamic art. Also twentieth-century textile design including Anni Albers, collages of Anne Ryan. She would like to create a landscape that is both abstract and at the same time is a representation of the atmosphere we live in. I am interested in the process of how prints and paintings are made.
Recent works are about climate change and its effects on urban, rural areas and animal habitats. Climate events show the inevitability of places that become uninhabitable. They are also about isolation during the pandemic. Currently, fires, hurricanes, floods and excessive heat are devastating many places.
The below quote relates to art as well because every mark you make matters.
Samuel Beckett said ‘every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.’”
