Linda Rossi

My creative process integrates the personal/emotional with larger theoretical and social concerns regarding perception, physics and our relationship to nature. From the start, my work has suggested parallels between, on the one hand, the human form, emotions, and thought patterns and, on the other hand, the structures of plants, animals, geological forms, and phenomena of the universe. In this process, I also explore the historical and complex development of the nature aesthetic, in both the art world and popular culture.

For over thirty years I have been creating installations which incorporate sculpture, video and photography. I am interested in a dynamic relationship between the materials and the space they inhabit. I know from natural systems that the edge (the ecotone) is where life is most fertile. It is in this place of exchange where possibilities for the future reside. In principles of ecology it is the relationship between and not the things themselves, which determines reality. I analyze the implications of the photographic image and how the photo frames and distances its subjects. The work embodies ideas about our contemporary estrangement from nature, about the character of illusion and revelation, and about the power of photography to mediate reality.

Linda Rossi, Professor of Art
University of Minnesota, B.F.A., Cranbrook Academy of Art, M.F.A.

Linda Rossi teaches both analog and digital photography classes. Her work is primarily in large-scale photo installation including video and sculpture to illuminate both historical and current issues. She has received numerous Jerome, McKnight and Minnesota State Arts grants. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the Strogonvo Palace, Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in Iran. Her work can be viewed in the permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art.