Washington Printmakers Gallery Presents Rosemary Cooley Acqua-Shui

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Reception: Saturday, May 4 from 2pm to 4pm

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Washington Printmakers Gallery presents Acqua-Shui, original prints and paintings celebrating WATER within the Italian and Chinese Cultures by Rosemary Cooley, May 2-26, 2019.  There will be a reception on Saturday, May 4^th from 2-4 pm and a lecture-demo on Gelatin plate monoprint with pastel embellishment on Saturday, May 18^th from 2-3:30 pm.

Ms. Cooley was born in Buffalo, NY,  where she completed her undergraduate degree in Art Education. After teaching secondary studio art and art history, she moved with her husband to South Africa and began fifteen years living in Asia (Bangkok) and South America (Caracas) returning twice more to South Africa. She taught on the secondary and college level and exhibited her in each country. Returning to the US, she completed a M. Litt. with concentration in Art History while teaching AP Studio Art and AP Art History in New Jersey.

She studied under various printmakers, including at the Johannesburg Art Foundation (etching program initiated by Willliam Kentridge) and at Santa Reparata School of Art in Florence, Italy. She has participated in many printmaking workshops and has been influenced by mentors Ron Pokrasso and Dan Welden, with whom she studied in Florence, Santa Fe and Charleston. She studied painting under Giovanni Casadei, Paul duSold and Christine la Fuente of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. Most recently, she studied under printmaker, Catherine Kernan.

Having spent 2005-2009 living part time in Shanghai, China, she has had the opportunity to meet many printmakers through her friend Professor Xu Longbao, chairman of Printmaking at University of Shanghai. Through him she met and studied with Ink Painting Master, Wang Jie Yin. This method of painting, so different from the west, employs soft, unsized papers and brushes of organic material. Based on capillary action, the method melds appropriately with the artist’s love of water. The Shanghai experience echoed her inspiration of studying under Prof. James Kuo, from Suzhou, China in her undergraduate days.

Rosemary curated the exhibition “American Impressions: Contemporary Printmaking”, in Shanghai in April 2012 at the Shanghai International Convention Center, which represented 73 prints by 36 American printmakers. She also facilitated an exchange exhibition, “Shanghai Impressions: Comtemporary Ex Libris Prints” at Washington Printmakers Gallery in June 2012, which featured the works of 36 printmakers from Shanghai.

She has held solo exhibitions at The Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, Washington Printmakers Gallery, Delbarton School, Hamachi Gallery, Tokyo, Stimson Center, Washington DC, and has participated in group shows at The Sketch Club of Philadelphia, the Wayne Art Center in Philadelphia,  Dadian Gallery in Washington DC, Gallery at Slough Road, Brewster, MA, The Old Print Gallery in Washington, DC, the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, and two exhibitions at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda MD.

Rosemary is past President and Board Member of Washington Printmakers Gallery, and her work is in the collections of the Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, Georgetown University, Delbarton School, Morristown, NJ, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Martha Jefferson Hospital, Charlottesville, VA , the Natonal Headquarters of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, the Library of Congress and in private collections in the United States, South Africa, Belgium, Sweden,Venezuela, France, England, Italy, New Zealand, Japan and China.

Hours:

• Thursday – Saturday: 11am to 6pm
• Sunday: 12pm to 5pm
• or by appointment

The exhibition is located at Washington Printmakers Gallery at 1641 Wisconsin Ave. NW. For more information, visit http://www.washingtonprintmakers.com/.