As an artist and educator, Steve Rossi has broad overlapping interdisciplinary interests that are reflected in his creative practice and pedagogy. His most recent work involves exploring how we live in relation to water in our built environments. Through referencing the physical path of rivers on the East Coast and groundwater management policy in the Great Plains region, Rossi’s research is informed by natural resource stewardship considerations, labor histories, and geological formations. Working across two-dimensions and three-dimensions through relief sculpture, installation, painting, and new media, his primary art historical influences include geometric abstraction, minimalism, modernism, and land art; recent material and technical processes utilized include metalworking and woodworking, hand-embroidery, augmented reality, addressable LED lighting, 3D printing, and metal casting.
He received his BFA from Pratt Institute in 2000 and his MFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz in 2006. His work has been exhibited at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, the John Michael Kohler Art Center, the Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, the Wassaic Project, and the Visual Arts Center at Mississippi State University, among many others. He has done artist residencies with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Vermont Studio Center, and Gallery Aferro. His work has been supported by funding from the City of Newark Creative Catalyst Fund, Arts Mid-Hudson, and the Myers Foundation at West Virginia University School of Art and Design.
He has presented on the intersections between his pedagogy and visual art practice at Linnaeus University, Vaxjo, Sweden; the College Art Association conference; and the International Sculpture Conference, and has been a frequent contributor to the College Art Association’s CAA Conversations podcast series. In 2024, he was named an Affiliate Fellow with the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Exhibition review in Whitehot Magazine.
Curriculum feature on partnership with the Barnes Arboretum.
Curriculum feature on collaboration with the Occupational Therapy Department.
steverossisculpture.com
