Rosemarie Fiore’s unconventional paintings and drawings are made by exploding and containing live fireworks. She alters and builds devices to harness the chromatic and mark-making effects of smoke bombs to create vividly-colored, multi-dimensional works. Large-scale abstract pieces boast complex, highly sculptural surfaces. Using a rolling machine of her own invention, Fiore wields burning fireworks like paintbrushes to impart deep blues, rusted oranges and bright magentas onto paper and canvas. As the device spins and twists, expressive traces generate in its wake. The more intimate pieces focus on the smoke. Clouds of transparent color land in concentric circles and blend with the ease of pastels. In the end, the work is a meditation between machine and artist; chaos and control.
Fiore received her BA from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Solo and group exhibitions include Weatherspoon Museum, Greensboro, NC; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY; The Savannah College of Art & Design Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; The Bronx Museum, NY; The Queens Museum of Art, NY and The Franklin Institute of Science, Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been reviewed in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Art in America, The Village Voice and New York Magazine.
Rosemarie Fiore lives and works in Bronx, NY.
Rosemarie Fiore
Smoke Paintings
Text by Marshall N. Price
Publisher:
Von Lintel Gallery, New York
2013
40 pages