Finding Gold at the Neuberger Museum

Artist Rosalie D. Gagne shows her “breathtaking” works at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York now through December 22, 2024. Her work takes installation art into a new dimension, where she uses pulsating inflatables to mirror the ways in which respiratory and circulatory systems function. Her work suggests that there is a synergy linking such biological functions as being both artistic and scientific.  Her inflatables literally breathe.

Her use of materials like plastic bags, liquids and electronics, along with glass and clay, expand the range of what has been considered in the past to be assemblage material, giving new meaning and purpose to objects found in our environment.  In her body of work, there is an exploration of science and art, particularly the mechanisms of medical mystery that take her into a new realm of exploration between the natural and the physical worlds, which is perhaps why she considers herself an alchemist.

What does she mean by being an alchemist, and how are contemporary artists reinterpreting the practice of alchemy to explain their interest in experimentation? To be clear, the practice of alchemy in medieval times was related to the idea that, through scientific or philosophical activity, one could turn any material into gold. Philosophically, the practice evolved to embrace the experimental methods, practices, and materials used by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Chakaia Booker, Kara Walker and Faith Ringgold, to name a few. One just simply needs to enter the gallery at the Neuberger Museum and view the plastic amoeba-like structures that fill the gallery to appreciate her vision of what installation art can be. There is still time to catch this extraordinary show, which runs through December 22.

^{PHOTOS (top to bottom): Effet papillon(Butterfly Effect),2007. Copyright Neuberger Museum of Art (Photo: Lynda Shenkman); Lavamanos (Hand Wash), 2001. Copyright Neuberger Museum of Art (Photo: Lynda Shenkman); Règne artificiel IV(Artificial Kingdom IV), 2020 (detail). Copyright Neuberger Museum of Art (Photo: Lynda Shenkman)}