Mia Westerlund Roosen at Betty Cuningham Gallery, 5/17-6/30

Betty Cuningham Gallery announces an exhibition of models, maquettes and sculptures by Mia Westerlund Roosen, spanning her career from 1976- 2012. This will be the artist's third exhibition at the Gallery.

Born in New York with Cuban heritage, Westerlund Roosen considered two careers, one as a dancer the other as an artist. She cites her interest in dance as the reason her sculpture often refers to the body, its sexuality, its flow and its movement.

Emerging as a sculptor in the late 1960's when Minimalism was the dominate, artistic movement, Westerlund Roosen chose the organic over the industrial, geometric aesthetic and held on tightly to her commitment to the hand made object.

The current exhibition, Sculptures, 1976-2012, features approximately 50 small works. The models and maquettes all have been realized in monumental size while the four new works are not conceived with a larger work in mind. All pieces are unique and range in size from 2 to 72 inches. Throughout her career, Westerlund Roosen is at home working in a vast range of media including copper, concrete, ceramic, felt, lead, resin, flannel, stucco, plaster and bronze among others. Historically her work has been white or the inherent color of the selected medium. However more recently, Westerlund Roosen has begun to introduce color in her work, particularly evident in the four new sculptures included in the exhibition.

Mia Westerlund Roosen has received several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 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.

http://www.bettycuninghamgallery.com