Rachel Rose: ESCAPE — Rachel Rose

Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present ESCAPE, a solo exhibition by Rachel Rose. In ESCAPE, Rachel Rose transports viewers into dreamlike landscapes where familiar botanical forms become metaphors for resilience, vulnerability, and transformation.

Centered around the palm tree – a symbol of paradise and escape whose sharp, strong fronds reveal a more complex nature – the paintings draw from the artist’s experience living with lupus, an invisible autoimmune disease that exists beneath an outward appearance of wellness. Alongside roses and coneflowers, these iconic plants challenge simplified ideas of beauty, revealing hidden layers of protection, healing, and endurance.

Bold colors and organic, yet unnatural forms work to transform these botanical motifs into contemplative scenes, conveying a sense of both depth and flatness. Vibrant palm trees extend from wave-like forms lining the background, as if they are growing from a rough ocean. Further cultivating her imagined landscape, Rose’s curved forms create the impression of chaos within the stillness of the canvas. Through these ethereal palettes and fluid, water-like forms, ESCAPE explores the delicate balance between serenity and danger, inviting viewers to look beyond appearances and embrace the coexistence of strength and fragility.

Rose received a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2016, a Post-Baccalaureate degree from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in 2014, and a BFA in Studio Art from Indiana University in 2009. Born in Massachusetts and raised in Connecticut, the artist has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, including presentations at Bridgette Mayer Gallery and Bakalar & Paine Galleries. In 2024, she exhibited at the Colony Hotel in Palm Beach and has participated in various group shows at Voltz Clarke Gallery. ESCAPE is the artist’s first solo exhibition in New York. Rose’s work has also been featured in Friend of the Artist, Candyfloss Magazine, Visionary Art Collective, and VIVANT Magazine. Rose currently lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia, where her experiences as a mother continue to inform her artistic practice.