"My medium is welded aluminum and hand sewn polyfiber for indoors, and welded aluminum and perforated polypropolene or aluminum for outdoors, combined in sculptures that deal with human emotion. Line, space, and planes interact equally to create form. Both the hard lines and soft planes of the indoor sculptures, and the perforated planes of outdoor sculptures offer translucency. This makes the interior and exterior of each form, and the negative spaces in and around them equally critical. The sculptures often defy gravity or appear to stand precariously, and possess a weightless quality. With metallic lines, and translucent planes, the sculptures react to changing light with cast shadows within, around, and beyond themselves as part of a complexity far beyond their minimalist appearance." [1]
- Susan Ferrari Rowley
"Upon moving to Rochester in 1976 to attend Rochester Institute of Technology acquiring her MST and MFA, the artist Susan Ferrari-Rowley found herself in the midst of an arts community which she became a consistent and active part of. Settling into the Rochester community, she found stability and the environment for one driven to evolve artistically. Ferrari-Rowley played a major role in the acceptance of fabric as a sculptural medium in the art world by consistently pushing the creative envelope and putting her work into competitions that caused critics and judges to question existing standards for what was thought of as a ‘proper medium for sculpture’.
Ferrari-Rowley began her career as a sculptor, finding early that fabric was her medium of choice. She quickly discovered that recognition in that medium was restricted to the term craftsman, and questioned being shut out by the sculptural realm that was her works intent. From the early 70’s she was accepted into national and international exhibitions such as the International Exhibition at the Tweed Museum of Art with sculpture created with fabric and techniques unique to the handling of such materials, but shortly after, the term ‘soft sculpture’ was coined, appearing to be a setback for those working in this medium. At this point artists went to war with the art world, resenting this differential separation because of medium. Ferrari Rowley sited Claes Oldenburg’s soft toilet as an iconic earlier sculpture that had already crossed the barrier in 1966 without creating a stir, and she pushed on, creating larger and more imposing forms with fabric. In 1977 she was one of fifty artists under the age of thirty selected nationally for the exhibition ‘Young Americans: Fiber/Wood/Plastic/Leather’, held once every decade by the American Craft Museum to showcase future leaders in the arts. In this exhibition, her work was helping to coin a new term ‘fine art craft’ for work where the outcome, or the form, was more or equally important than the technique used to create it. Shortly after, Ferrari-Rowley was invited to take part in the creation of a new concept for Rochester, an exhibition space run on grants which produced the Pyramid Arts Center. She was invited into an early exhibition, there, among many such as ‘Six Plus Twelve’ with standouts such as Wendell Castle.
On Sunday, December 16, 1984, New York Time reviewer Phyllis Braff wrote of Ferrari-Rowley’s work:…."examples that hold our attention as pure esthetic expressions help to establish the validity of fiber as a fine art medium….her dazzling three dimensional color abstraction, ‘Complementary Movement’ is clearly a star here….the effect is both stimulating and meditative….perhaps the show’s most profound piece……
While the debate over ‘fine art’ and ‘fine art craft’ continued on an international scale, she pushed on, selected in 1988 for ‘Materials: Hard and Soft’ in Texas and The International Art Competition juried by Messinger of MOMA, Satz of the Whitney, and Little from Art in America. Both exhibitions were using work like Ferrari-Rowley’s to erase boundaries. A watershed moment came in 1989 when she entered the ‘Chautauqua 32nd National Exhibition of American Art’, with R. Williams of MOMA jurying; ‘New Art/New Material’ with Bloomer of Yale as one of the luminaries judging; and the ‘International Fiber Exhibition’. Accepted into all, she had purposely entered the same sculpture into Chautauqua and the International Fiber, where it won best of show and purchase for the permanent collection at Chautauqua, and the Brenholz Award for Innovation at the International Fiber. It was at this time, that Ferrari-Rowley completed the transition in to the world of Fine Arts with her medium of choice: Fabric.
Throughout the next twenty years, she continued to build her reputation with scores of exhibitions, and with commissions both locally and out of Rochester such as the Greater Rochester International Airport; the South Clinton Gateway Pavilion; and The Falls Building in Memphis. In 2015 she will complete a suspended sculpture for the atrium of the DePaul Residential Project in West Henrietta, NY.
In 1995 she was included in the Invitational at the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester’s ‘Out of the Drawing Room’ an exhibition of roughly eleven women artists of stature in this upstate geographic area. She further expanded her repertoire to outdoor sculpture in coated fabric for exhibitions such as Contemporary Sculpture at Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston, where her massive and innovative ‘Spirit Vessels’ was purchased for the permanent collection. Her outdoor work has expanded to include sheets of perforated plastic and aluminum that mimic the translucency of the fabric of her indoor exhibition work, maintaining her conceptual objectives. The success of this work is evident by her inclusion into outdoor exhibitions at Chautauqua Institute and SculptureNow at The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts since 2013
Additionally, for each major body of work she produced, Ferrari Rowley creates two-dimensional exhibition companion works that are deconstructions of the sculptures. These range from serigraphs to layered assemblages that are interpretations of the individual sculptures. Again, these are done in a manner that is consistent with her post-minimalist sensibility, and unique in her style.
While showing consistently in New York City, Ferrari Rowley kept her eyes on the gallery she wanted most to show in. One more major hurdle was overcome with her acceptance into the famed international OK Harris Gallery in Manhattan, whose mission was ‘to show the most significant art of our time’. She was selected by the late icon of modern art, Ivan Karp, and completed her third show with them on January 19, 2013 before they closed their doors after 45 years.
In conjunction with every New York City exhibition she had, Ferrari Rowley showed her work in her home community of Rochester, garnering reviews and kudos from local television and publications. It has been critical to her to share each body of work with her community. The concept of ‘community’ further expands the breadth of her career and the affect she has had as a champion of the arts as a Professor at area colleges. She has taught full time and Nazareth College of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, and is currently a tenured Associate Professor at Monroe Community College in the Fine Arts, teaching Sculpture and 3D-Design. She has had a positive, major affect on students and the arts community since graduating with her terminal degrees. It was her desire after high school to teach art and be a producing artist, though she was told this was impossible. It wasn’t. SUNY Buffalo had the finest Art Education Department in the state system, and Ferrari Rowley excelled there, student teaching, and becoming certified. After being raised on Long Island, she fell in love with upstate NY while at Buffalo, and has spent her life pursuing her intense career goals, here, both as a Professor and Professional Artist. She has been recognized by her community and state receiving the 2011 NYS Chancellors Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Arts, and the 2013 Visual Artist Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester.
As an adjunct to her sculptural career, Ferrari Rowley began her own company, sfrBOLD, producing ‘sculptural wearables in the form of large scale bracelets and companion pendants. These pieces are numbered and collectable, with a new edition being added yearly. It was her wish to integrate American Manufacturing Process and Sculpture, to create a unique product that relates to her sculptural design sensibility. She has accomplished this with the casting of aluminum, and the use of translucent meshes etc. All of the businesses involved in production, from the boxes she designed, to the cutting of the meshes, and casting of each element, are done locally in the Rochester area, and continued evidence of her community based ethic.
Ferrari Rowley has had a full career as a pioneer in Fiber/Fabric/Sculpture that is not nearly over." [2]
[1] "Artist's Statement", Susan Ferrari Rowley
[2] "Personal Profile", Susan Ferrari Rowley