Betsy Rosenwald

Betsy Rosenwald is a Saskatoon-based visual artist whose mixed media paintings have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Canada, the US, and internationally. Born in Boston, Betsy received her BA in Fine Arts from Beloit College (WI) and moved to New York to complete an MFA at Brooklyn College (Brooklyn, NY). She moved to Canada in 2000 and is a dual US/Canadian citizen. Her early work is associated with New York’s East Village art scene, where it was represented by the seminal East Village gallery, Civilian Warfare. Her collaborative project with artist Dawna Rose, Journal of the Plague Year(s): 2020 - 2023, was exhibited at Remai Modern (Saskatoon) in 2022/2023. Begun in response to the political and social chaos wrought by COVID-19, it included an archive of over 1,000 paintings on recycled cardboard and a 40 ft. mural painted during the exhibition. A book documenting the project’s history was published in 2023.

Betsy is the recipient of grants from SK Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, and Art Matters Foundation. She has attended artist residencies at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VA), AKA Artist-Run (SK), Artscape Gibraltar Point (ON), Klondike Institute for Art and Culture (YT), Emma Lake Artists/Writers Retreat (SK), Pouch Cove Foundation (NL), and MacDowell (NH), and was an artist-in-residence with Dawna Rose at Remai Modern. In 2023, she received the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for her contributions to the Arts in Saskatchewan. Her work can be found in many private and public collections, including The Canada Council Arts Bank and SK Arts, and in publications such as The Globe and Mail, BlackFlash, Print Magazine, The New York Times, ArtNews, Galleries West, Artforum, and The Paris Review. A former art editor of the literary magazine, Grain, she has collaborated with writers on several projects, including Jack Pine Press’s limited edition Pliny’s Knickers, which received the 2005 bp Nichol chapbook award. Instagram: @betsyrose_1

Curriculum Vitae

One/Two Person Exhibitions

2023 Journal of the Plague Year(s): 2020 - 2023 with Dawna Rose, Mann Art Gallery, Saskatoon
2022 - 23 Journal of the Plague Year(s): 2020 - 2023 with Dawna Rose, Remai Modern, Saskatoon
Curator: Michelle Jacques
2022 If we had a TV show, we'd have a place to work, with Dawna Rose, The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon
2021 Journal of the Plague Year(s), with Dawna Rose, AKA Gallery, Saskatoon
2021 Journal of the Plague Year, with Dawna Rose, 330g Projects, Saskatoon, SK
2021 2.9 Billion Birds Gone, with Dawna Rose, SaskTel MaxTV Local on Demand video
2018 Our Enduring Drama, with Dawna Rose, Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK
2014 The Chance Files, Boulderpavement: Art and Ideas, The Banff Centre
2006 Still Remains, Art Gallery of Regina, Regina, SK
2005 Salvage, Odd Gallery, Dawson City, YT
1985 Betsy Rosenwald, Civilian Warfare Gallery, New York, NY
1983 Betsy Rosenwald, Just Above Midtown/Downtown, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023 Gallery 330g, Saskatoon, SK: The Waterlilies Portrait Project: Portraits of Afghan women who fled the Taliban
2023 Art Now Saskatchewan, Regina, SK
2022 Art Now Saskatchewan Fine Art Fair, Saskatoon, SK
2022 The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, Gallery artists
2022 Grasslands Gallery (online): Summerlight; Wintering: Gallery Artists; A Swiftly Tilting Planet
2021 Art Now Saskatchewan Fine Art Fair, Saskatoon, SK
2020 Easton Book Festival, Easton, PA (online), Word, curated by Jackie Lima
2019 Pump House at River Landing, Saskatoon, SK, Pop Luck
2018 The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK, Figure/Ground
2018 Art Now Saskatchewan Fine Art Fair, Saskatoon, SK
2016 The Gallery/Art Placement, Saskatoon, SK, Conversations in Paint
2004 James Baird Gallery, St. Johns, NFLD, Here and Back, curated by Robert Clarke-Davis
2000 Jennifer Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Fresh
2000 Snelgrove Gallery, Saskatoon, SK, Objects and Images
1997 Bentley College, Waltham, MA, The Dog Show
1997 Gallery Asyl, New York, Not the Biennial
1993 Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, New York, One River, One World, curated by Mariella Bisson
1993 Tweed Gallery, NY, Commission on the Status of Women: Women's Art,Women's Lives, Women's Issues
1993 Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York, Anniversary Exhibition
1987 Barbican Arts Group Gallery, London, England, A New York View
1987 Kraine Club Gallery, New York, 4 Women
1987 Silvermine Art Center, New Canaan, CT, Art of the Northeast, curated by Patterson Sims
1986 Islip Art Museum, Islip, New York, Vivid Pastel
1986 Galleria Mascarella Arte Ricerca, Bologna, Italy; Museo Civico, Siracusa, Italy: 12 Artists from New York
1986 Hudson Center Gallery, New York, Women Regard Men
1986 Center for Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA, Women Regard Men
1985 La Foret Museum, Harajuku, Tokyo, Japan; Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts, Utsunomiya, Japan:
1985 Correspondences: New York Art Now, curated by Nicolas Moufarrege
1985 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, Collector's Choice
1985 Bond Gallery, New York, Stigmata, curated by Steven Kaplan
1985 Nora Haime Gallery, New York, Pastel
1985 London Art Fair, London, England
1985 Avenue B Gallery, New York Feminists & Misogynists Together at Last, curated by Robt Costa
1984 Zurich Art Fair, Zurich, Switzerland
1984 Women's Interart Center, New York, Dreams and Nightmares, curated by Janet Heit
1984 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Painting and Sculpture Today: 1984 Biennial Exhibition
1983 Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York, Intoxication, curated by Nicolas Moufarrege
1983 Real Artways, Hartford, Connecticut, Dirty Pictures, curated by Jeanette Ingberman, Exit Art
1983 PS 1, Long Island City, New York A Flag for the 80s, Installation
1982 White Columns, New York, Dirty Pictures, curated by Jeanette Ingberman
1982 Basement Workshop, New York, Angry Art, curated by Reine Hauser and Janet Henry

Education

BA, Beloit College, Beloit, WI
MFA, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, NY

Bibliography

BlackFlash,"Interview: Archiving Our Anxiety: A Conversation with Dawna Rose and Betsy Rosenwald, "Laura St. Pierre,
Volume 40, Issue 1, July - September 2023
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix,"Women for Women: Saskatoon portrait project shares stories of Afghan women", Julia
Peterson, August 15, 2023
Prince Albert Daily Herald,"Journal of the Plague Years puts microscope on life under COVID," Jason Kerr, June 27,2023
Print Magazine: The Daily Heller,"A Head-Spinning Mural on Cardboard From Saskatoon," Steven Heller, February 27,2023
Remai Modern,"Journal of the Plague Year(s) Diary: A report from our bubble,"Dawna Rose and Betsy Rosenwald, December 6, 2022 - March 1, 2023," Remai Modern website
SaskArts 2021-22 Annual Report,"Chronicling a Pandemic," Sabrina Cataldo, July 2022
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix,"Saskatoon art installation chronicles the plague years," Nick Pearce, February 24, 2022
The Globe and Mail,"Silver linings: Five art projects born out of the pandemic," March 13, 2021, Marsha Lederman
The Globe and Mail,"Eight ways to fix the arts industry, postpandemic," March 13, 2021, Marsha Lederman
CBC News Saskatchewan,"Journal of the Plague Year exhibition examines politics through an artistic lens,"(Morning Edition), Ashleigh Mattern, February 14, 2021
Galleries West,"Dawna Rose and Betsy Rosenwald: Journal of the Plague Year," February 2021
The Saskatoon StarPhoenix,"Plague year: Saskatoon artists put their feelings about politics, social issues, and Covid-19
on display," Matt Olson, February 18, 2021
CBC Morning Edition,"Pop Luck" radio interview with Julianne Hazlewood, August 2019
Boulderpavement: Art and Ideas (Issue #9 - 2013, Repetition), online quarterly published by the Banff Centre: featured
artist, interview with Steven Ross Smith
The Leader-Post,"Painting past merely a search for meaning,"(review: Art Gallery of Regina) Jack Anderson,
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
ArtForum,"East Village Ten Years After," October 1999
108,"4 Artists,"at Kraine Club Gallery,Carlo McCormick (review: Kraine Club Gallery) May 1987
New York Times,"Experimenting with the Purity of Pastels," Helen A. Harrison (review: Vivid Pastel, Islip Art Museum)
Sunday Long Island edition, November 16, 1986
Art News,"Betsy Rosenwald,"(review: Civilian Warfare Gallery) Sarah Cecil, May 1985
New York Times,"The Downtown Scene: A Sampler of What's New,"Vivian Raynor (review: Betsy Rosenwald at Civilian
Warfare Gallery) Friday, February 15, 1985
Arts Magazine,"Betsy Rosenwald,"article with repro by Lewis Kachur, February 1985
Indianapolis News, "Painting Today A Vibrant Show," Marion Garmel (review: Painting and Scupture Today, Indianapolis
Museum of Art) May 2, 1984
New York Beat,"Loisada in Hoosierland," Carlo McCormick, May 23, 1984
Flash Art, "The Year After," Nicolas Moufarrege, Summer,1984
New York Times, "A Gallery Scene that Pioneers in New Territories," Grace Glueck, Sunday, June 26, 1983
New York Times, "Art: One Man's Biennial Assembles 102 Artists," Grace Glueck (review: Intoxication, Monique Knowlton
Gallery) April 25, 1983
East Village Eye, "Review: Betsy Rosenwald at Just Above Midtown/Downtown," Jane Webb, April, 1983
Arts Magazine, "Another Wave, Still More Savagely than the First: Lower East Side, 1982," Nicolas Moufarrege

Catalogues and Publications

Journal of the Plague Year(s): 2020 - 2023, 80 pages, hard cover book, with essays by Dawna Rose and Betsy Rosenwald,
Joan Borsa, Joseph Wolin, and Michelle Jacques and multi-page foldout of exhibition, Remai Modern, Saskatoon,
February 2023
The Paris Review, Fall 1997, No. 144 (cover painting)
La Banda dei Dodici: 12 Artists from New York City, with essay by Carlo McCormick, May 1986 (catalogue with repro)
Correspondences: New York Art Now, published by Tsurumoto Room Co., Ltd., with essays by Nicolas Moufarrege,
Shozo Tsurumoto, and Alan Jones; in Japanese and English; December 1985 (book with repro)
Women Regard Men, published by Hudson Center Gallery, New York, NY February, 1986 (catalogue with repro)
Painting and Sculpture Today 1984, with essay by Helen Ferrulli, Indianapolis Museum of Art, April 1984 (catalogue)
Dirty Pictures, with essay by Jeanette Ingberman, Exit Art Press, New York, NY December 1982 (repro)

Grants and Awards

2024 Saskatchewan Arts Board microgrant
2024 Saskatchewan Arts Board Independent Artist Grant
2024 Karen Shea and Gabe Silverman Endowment Fellowship, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts
2023 Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal (Provincial) for contributions to the Arts
2022 Canada Council for the Arts Explore and Create Artist Grant (collaboration with Dawna Rose)
2022 Saskatchewan Arts Board Independent Artist Grant (collaboration with Dawna Rose)
2021 Saskatchewan Arts Board Independent Artist Grant (collaboration with Dawna Rose)
2020 Saskatchewan Arts Board microgrant
2016 Saskatchewan Arts Board Independent Artist Grant
2006 Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant
2006 bp nichols Chapbook Award, Pliny's Knickers
1990 Art Matters Foundation, New York, artist grant
1987 Reader's Digest Award for Works on Paper, Art of the Northeast
1986 New York Foundation for the Arts, artist fellowship

Selected Artist Residencies

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA
AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, SK
Pouch Cove Artist Residency, Pouch Cove, NFLD
Artscape Gibraltar Point, Toronto, ON
Emma Lake Artist/Writer Retreat, Emma Lake, SK
Klondike Institute for Art & Culture (KIAC), Dawson City, YT
MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire, artist residency
Public Collections
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan Arts Board
Canada Council Art Bank
New York Foundation for the Arts
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

Memberships/Related Work

2023 Women in Painting: Artist talk and panel, Remai Modern, Saskatoon, SK
2023 Grain Magazine 50th Anniversary: Panelist
2018 - 19 CARFAC Mentorship Program, mentor
2018 Invisibility of Women in the Arts, panelist, Corfu, Greece
2009 - 14 Grain Magazine, art editor
2005 - 07 Jack Pine Press Collective, member
1981 - 99 Member artist, Painting Space 122 Assoc, PS122, NY, NY