Phyllis Rosser

Biography

Phyllis Rosser has been constructing abstract wood assemblages for over 30 years and has exhibited widely in New York, New England, and New Jersey.  Her work is included in the collections of artists, curators, and corporations including Microsoft, the Smith College Museum of Art, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, and Rowan University.  Her sculptures range in size from 12 inches to over eight feet in length and have been described as “talismans of nature’s force, power, and beauty.”  New York Times critic Barry Schwabsky has compared her work to the “muscular brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionist painters like Joan Mitchell and Willem de Kooning.”

In vivid contrast to the sculpted wildness of nature, Rosser celebrates the orchestrated utopia of the garden with large acrylic paintings of flowers and landscapes.  She focuses on the beauty of their colors and shapes, the eroticism of their blossoms that are magnified for our understanding and pleasure.  Art historian/critic Anne Swartz has described the experience of viewing her work:  “We’re looking at nature in its glory, at its most copious. . . the flowers are truly romantic in that they are both beautiful (vital forms) and sublime (prompting a sense of awe at the spectacle of nature). 

View studio video interview here: Video Interview

Artist statement

Using wood stripped bare of its bark and washed smooth by the Connecticut River in Vermont, I construct dynamic sculptures that mirror natural compositions in the environment. The energy of the wood - its muted colors and infinite patterns of grains as well as its broken forms have power for me, suggesting something that endures even as a tree completes its life cycle.

I also express my ecstatic relationship with nature in large acrylic paintings of flowers and gardens. Using dynamic colors and close-up views, I invite the viewer to walk into single blossoms or utopian versions of the constructed landscape. These paintings are sold as full-sized pigment prints.