Rose Marasco
July 2 – August 27, 2026
About This Exhibition
Nature has always been of interest to me. When I first started photographing as a teenager, I would walk the streets of my hometown, Utica, NY, and then drive off to the countryside to photograph.
When preparing for this exhibition at the Jewish Museum, I looked back to past work that was relevant to my current interest. This centered around birds: both my 26 years ago, Robin & Kestrel and, my very recent, Bird Series, 2026.
In between this, there are several iterations of my use of projections, both made with the sun, as my light source, as in my Circle Series ( 2001-02); and most fully realized in my celebrated Projections series. These are large format (4×5 in.) color photographs made in the rooms of my home. Appropriately, one is the cover of my book, “At Home,” published by OSMOS Books in 2023.
My use of the projected image has continued for decades now. In this exhibit are two series of works, one horizontal and one vertical series, made in a barn in Virginia that had some roughly painted murals on its walls. I incorporated this imagery into my compositions to make a photograph. In the horizontal photos in this series, I used common everyday objects; and, in the vertical series, I used nature. Therefore nature and objects, most fully realized in my ten-year Domestic Objects series, have been of interest for a very long time.
Personally then to see the birds re-appear, was quite a delight. This current series was made this past February at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, where I was in residency. These were all made on one shoot and very quickly, as all was blowing about in the wind! I knew from my years of photographing objects outdoors, to trust my instinct. The remarkable thing about taking chances like this is— it either works really well or, it’s crazy.
In class critiques I would sometimes say: “crazy good” or “crazy crazy.” The students would look at me and wonder, “What’s the correct answer?” Because I have been, and continue to be, willing to take leaps with what a photograph is and can be, every once and a while I receive a gift.
It’s a crazy good feeling.
About the Artist
Rose Marasco was born and raised in Utica, New York. She earned a BFA from Syracuse University and a MFA from the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York, where she studied with Nathan and Joan Lyons— eminent photographers, book artists, and curators.
Marasco has had an extensive teaching career, establishing two photography departments, and retired from 40 years of teaching at the college level. The first five years of her teaching career were dedicated to initiating, at age 24, the photography department at Munson School of Art (currently affiliated with Pratt NYC) in Utica, NY. Later, Marasco established the photography department at the University of Southern Maine (USM), when she joined the Art Department in 1979. Upon her retirement, USM awarded her the highest rank of Distinguished Professor Emerita.
Marasco has continually and widely exhibited her photographs since 1971. She’s had 25 solo exhibitions at venues including the Houston Center for Photography, Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, Brest, France; Davis Museum & Cultural Center, Wellesley College; Sarah Morthland Gallery, NYC, and Meredith Ward Fine Art, NYC. Marasco she has lectured at Harvard University, Parsons School of Design, and numerous colleges and museums throughout the country.
Significant solo shows include a career retrospective in 2015 entitled, index, at the Portland Museum of Art. The exhibition was nationally featured and/or reviewed in Hyperallergic, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, American Photo Magazine, Downeast Magazine, and regional publications throughout New England. In 2023, she had an acclaimed solo exhibition at the University of New England Art Gallery, entitled Camera Lucida. This was also the debut of her book of text and photographs, At Home, published by OSMOS Press and with a Foreword by Lucy L. Lippard. In 2024, her photographs were shown at the inaugural exhibition of PHOTOFAIRS, an international photography fair, at the Javits Center, NYC.
Additionally, her photographs are included in public collections of distinction, including: The Fogg Museum at Harvard University; Fidelity Investments Corporate Art Collection; The Davis Museum at Wellesley College; The New York Public Library Photography Collection; Portland Museum of Art; Bowdoin College Museum of Art; Colby Museum of Art, Bates Museum of Art, the University of Maine, and the Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, among others. She has lectured about her work at Harvard University, Parsons School of Design, the Center for Photography at Woodstock and numerous other colleges and museums across the country.
All images copyright of the artist, unless otherwise noted; reproduction not allowed without express permission
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