Rosenthaljo Os25
OS25

Jo Rosenthal

02/06/18

Jo Rosenthal's first solo show 1,000 Things opening reception is on March 9, 2018 from 6 – 9pm at 251 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, NY and will run through April 8, 2018.

"I am excited to announce my first solo show. It consists of 1,000 drawings done over the course of two months. This is the first time I have shown my work by myself. It deals with themes of intimacy, emotion, vegetables and angels amongst so many other things.

A little bit about myself and my art practice:

What does it mean to be intimate? What does it mean to be in love? What does it mean to capture somebody? What does it mean to be enraptured? What I find myself frequently investigating in my art practice, are themes pertaining to the questions above.

The conceptual artists of the 90s, such as Tracey Emin and Felix Gonzalez-Torres, physically broke apart traditions in portraiture. I use it as a springboard to create portraits that do not conform to the figure to show who or what they depict.

My work often questions just how personal I can get with an audience by opening myself up as much as possible. Through drawing, performance, book-making, and installation, I communicate my own journey.

I want my audience to understand that it is okay to be emotional and intimate—to want to laugh and cry and want more from their overall experience—and in the process, to figure out what being Jo means in the world. I live and work in Chinatown, New York City. Only about 0.85 of me is composed of potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, and magnesium." – Jo Rosenthal

It's been a whirlwind week, but also a time when I sang the praises of Oxbow to my colleagues. I've been thinking much about how Oxbow is an exemplar of true education. That art centers the curriculum is hardly surprising, and for those of us who work within the traditional educational mold Oxbow offers a gold standard of focused project based learning. Beyond the school's approach to immersive experience are the intangibles which make Oxbow different. The sense of community and of working together, even as each student retained their strong individual presence is palpable. The feeling of warmth and trust between the adults and the nearly adults in the Oxbow community could be felt throughout the campus. The openness of the architecture and interconnectedness of the three studios in themselves speak of the Oxbow philosophy and identity. More than form follows function, the physical attributes of Oxbow have a distinct warmth and invite exploration.

I'm sure that the ongoing challenges of leading and reinventing your school might sometimes keep you from having the time to see Oxbow with the fresh eyes of a visitor, but your steady presence and vision are really visible in every detail. Thank you for inviting me to one of the most profound experiences in my career.

— Ken Rush, Visual Arts Department, Packer Collegiate Institute

At Oxbow, I got to try inquiry-based learning for the first time. This allowed me to control the amount of rigor and the depth of research in my topic, as well as picking a topic that I found most interesting. From going through this new process of learning, I feel excited to go back to the rigor of my sending school to apply the inquiry-based perspective to my classes.

— Meave Cunningham, Fall, 2015

Hey guys! OS33 alumni here! I received a full ride to California College of the Arts and just wanted to tell you guys that if it wasn't for the Oxbow experience and the great faculty who saw the potential in me I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did. I am still waiting for other colleges at the moment but I think this might be the school I will attend this fall!

— Keily Maldonado , Fall 2015

A School Like No Other

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