Port Jervis artist Roseanne Backstedt in group show in Soho

NEW YORK, NY — Paintings by artist Roseanne Back-stedt of Port Jervis are in the group exhibition at the Terrain Gallery, “Line-Shape-Color, the Artistic & Human Drama,” opening on Wednesday, September 12, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at 141 Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo district.

Roseanne Backstedt’s study of aesthetic realism began in 1976 in consultations with the teaching trio The Kindest Art in New York City. “I began to learn,” she says, “that my intention as an artist was to put opposites together, and that this was also my intention in life.”

Backstedt said, “It was a joy to comprehend myself and my work—to see that the opposites connected many styles I had worked in. I love trees, mountains, rivers, triangles, squares, circles, and shapes of all kinds. I began exploring what was inside the shape and what was outside. Inside and outside are opposites I am trying to put together as a self. I love learning from aesthetic realism that the purpose of life is to like the world through knowing it, and this is the purpose of art. Studying this is a beautiful way to spend one’s life.”

The earth, sky, land, and nature of Port Jervis are subjects in many of Backstedt’s paintings, including many on view at the Terrain.

Backstedt’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries, universities and alternative spaces in New York, Oregon, California, Pennsylvania and Germany, as well as on New York City subway panels. They have been reproduced in newspapers, books, and ArtSpeak magazine.