Mia Westerlund Roosen “Aftermath”

Betty Cuningham Gallery

[Image: Mia Westerlund Roosen "Boxes I-V" (2019-2021) Epoxy resin and assorted materials, approx. 16 x 45 x 18 in.]

This event has ended.

Betty Cuningham Gallery presents Aftermath, an exhibition of new sculptures by Mia Westerlund Roosen.

Since 2016, I have been addicted to the news, horrified by the unbelievable march towards the destruction of our political, social, and natural world. And yet, the times seem more luxurious than ever. —Mia Westerlund Roosen

So inspires Mia Westerlund Roosen’s sculpture in Aftermath. The works convey vulnerability and a body element that starkly contrast the world in which she constructed them.

Mia Westerlund Roosen emerged as a sculptor in the late 1960’s, when Minimalism was the dominant artistic movement. She chose the organic over the industrial and geometric, engaging with the language of the human body both physically and emotionally.

Today’s current events have brought a new, chilling side to Westerlund Roosen’s recent work. Included in this exhibition are five rectangular, box-like sculptures, simply titled Box I thru V, installed in a procession across the lower gallery. All are approximately the same size and share the media of epoxy resin— Westerlund chose the resin for its “more seductive, more vulnerable and luxurious quality.” Each box, however, is distinguished by a different skin-toned shade and an individual interior, each of which convey a different message (a taught grid, a severed cut, a quiet blanket, etc.). In the upper gallery stand Column I and Column II: one eight feet tall and the other nine. Both are created with polyester resin, flannel, and steel. They are translucent and fragile, again conveying a vulnerability that contrasts the world in which Westerlund Roosen created them.

Mia Westerlund Roosen has received several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Fulbright Fellowship. Her work can be seen in numerous public collections, most notably the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; and the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY. She divides her time between New York City and Buskirk, NY.