Gale Rothstein

Biography

Gale Rothstein’s art practice has always been about “putting together the pieces.” When she was a child, it was not unusual for her to take apart one thing to make another. 

Referenced through re-use, Gale’s work is informed by her lifelong interest in collecting antiques, collectibles, found objects, the harvested innards of discarded and broken appliances, hardware, and other salvaged objects. Re-contextualized and juxtaposed in discordant and surreal environments, these sculptures provoke the viewer to ask, “Where are we? Who is here with us? How big or small are we? Are we awake or dreaming?” 

Gale parlayed her aesthetic into her first professional career, as a jewelry designer. Originally trained by a local silversmith in Tucson, Arizona, she returned to her native New York to hone her skills, working in many areas of the jewelry industry, including costume, sterling silver, and high-end gold and diamonds. In 1981, she opened Gale Rothstein Designs, Inc., in a studio in the Meat Packing District. There she designed and manufactured an extensive line of fashion jewelry for over two decades, employing several artisans. Her pieces have been sold in hundreds of retail stores and craft galleries worldwide and appeared in many fashion publications including Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Glamour, Women’s Wear Daily, and several industry magazines. Early pieces have been surfacing on vintage jewelry dealers’ websites for many years.

No longer producing jewelry, Gale currently creates one-of-a-kind collage and assemblage sculptures. These assembled boxes and environments (“Inter-Exteriors”) emerge from a strong narrative and historical framework that inform the choice of objects and the relationship of diverse elements to each other and the overall context of the composition. She considers object identity, form, color, and structure in composing the assemblages. Two-dimensional collaged backgrounds are carefully coordinated with the placement of three-dimensional objects.

Gale dedicates her work to the memory of her father, Milton Rothstein, a jack-of-all-trades and one of the original recyclers and re-purposers, who worked decades before re-purposing was a trend. She inherited his vintage collection of parts and incorporates many of his objects into her sculptures, further supporting the historical and personal foundation of the work.

Artist statement

I had worked for most of my professional career as a jewelry designer through my company, Gale Rothstein Designs, Inc. I currently create one-of-a-kind collage and assemblage sculptures. My forte has always been ‘putting together the pieces’ and I feel my jewelry was a wearable form of assemblage. As a young child, it was not unusual for me to take apart one thing to make another. My assembled boxes and environments (Inter-Exteriors) emerge from a strong narrative and historical framework. Referenced through re-use, the work is informed by my former career as a jewelry designer, as well as a life-long pursuit of collecting antiques, collectibles, found objects, the harvested innards of discarded and broken appliances, hardware, and other damaged objects. Re-contextualized and juxtaposed in discordant and surreal environments, these destinations provoke the viewer to ask, “Where are we? Who is here with us? How big or small are we? Are we awake or dreaming?” The visitor is continually challenged to reevaluate one’s sense of time, place, and orientation.

For example, ‘She Dreams of Her Disappointing Life That Might Have Been Then Was’ is one of the works from my Inter-Exteriors group. The work demonstrates the inter-connectedness of the continuum of our experiences with objects from each ‘room’ overlapping and cascading into the next. Further investigation finds small references to abandoned hopes, i.e., a child is on a slide to a dead-end; oxen head for a precipice. An abandoned space that is simultaneously a bedroom/kitchen is situated on an Italian Piazza, eliciting the improbable and the sense that we are in a dream. The dreamer herself is imprisoned by her own response to regret, failure, and remorse, which may be based on actual lived experience, or her subjective beliefs about the events of her life; hence ‘…That Might Have Been Then Was.’ This leads to the inherent questions posed in my work; real, imagined, perceived, and at what juncture in our experiences have we concretized those events of our lives and refer to them as memory?