Press Release

Ruth Bachofner Gallery is pleased to present The Art of Taking a Line for a Walk, an exhibition of new work by Southern California-based artist, A.M. Rousseau. There will be a reception for the artist Saturday, March 5, 5-7 PM.

A.M. Rousseau is a multi-disciplined artist, writer and photographer who has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Using a deceptively simple formulation of connecting one line to another she takes her inspiration from a Paul Klee dictum: “Take a line for a walk, aimlessly for the sake of the walk.” What happens in between is the subject of her work.

With this exhibition, her first at the gallery, Rousseau brings together a series of paintings and drawings that trains the elemental form into ribbons of kinetic force or a profusion of swaying forms that exude such levity that belie a rather formal approach. She makes a line, chooses one point and follows it to wherever the mark leads, repeating the process to build a lush field. In other work, through a process of eliminating the beginning and end points, she connects bits and pieces of lines that then form shapes of their own making, each line finding a partner and forming a unique arrangement or pattern. Rousseau sees each line as a metaphor for the way life happens: one point leading to another, ever changing.

For her, “Every line is a reflection of individual will, a unique indicator of purpose and direction, just as in hieroglyphics, a kind of handwriting that can be read if the system of mark making is understood.” She regards her work as meditative, the mind and body connected and finding expression through motions of the arm, wrist, hand, fingers, and finally exiting via the implements of a brush, pen or pencil. Her work has much in common with the timeless quality of ancient Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, at the same time as it is firmly rooted in contemporary art practice.

She is the recipient of a National Endowment in the Arts Fellowship, The Djerassi Foundation Affymax Fellowship, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Artist Residency, Yaddo Artist residency, the Virginia Center for the Arts residency, the Manhattan Borough President’s Award for Excellence and Service in the Arts, and the Harc Foundation Award.

She received her undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. She also attended the New York Studio School for Painting and Sculpture and a summer program at the Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture.

 

 

 

For further information please call 310 829 3300 or visit www.RuthBachofnerGallery.com

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