Working in the space between figuration and abstraction, mosie river (b. 1994) uses painting as a portal through which to explore themes of self-perception and polychronic time. A worldbuilder informed by a background in set design and puppetry, romney stages fantasy worlds which disrupt our notions of nostalgia, memory, the archive, time, the past and the present. Recontextualizing images from a multitude of sources including family photo albums found on the internet, movie stills, literature, screen shots, dreams, and an evolving cast of characters continually recycled from previous works, romney tells stories of empowerment and explores life as a multi-performative experience. Using fantasy as a tool to grapple with realities of daily life, romney’s work conveys the emotional disposition of living in a society where contact across boundaries is constantly in variance. In their 2022 interview with Ben Fama in BOMB magazine, romney states “I’ve been thinking about visibility and its complications, the satisfaction and limited subjectivity of seeing and being seen.” romney received their BFA in Visual Art from SUNY Purchase in 2016 and have completed residencies with the Home School, Hudson, NY; Pocoapoco, Oaxaca City, MX; Painters Painting Paintings, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Mahler & LeWitt Studios, Spoleto, Italy, among others. Their work is in the permanent collections of the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Pond Society, Shanghai, China; the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China, among others. romney’s work has been included in exhibitions at White Columns, New York, NY; Nicodim, Bucharest, RO, Los Angeles, CA, and New York, NY; Greene Naftali, New York, NY; Gern en Regalia, New York, NY; Almine Rech, London, UK, and New York, NY; Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY, among others. Their work has been featured in articles in BOMB Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, T Magazine, and Juxtapoz, among others.
mosie river
b. 1994
Lives and works in Ridgewood, Queens, and Hudson Valley, New York
Education
2016 Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts, SUNY Purchase, NY
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2024
P·P·O·W, New York, NY (forthcoming)
2023
Rhizome St. / Fugue Avenue, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
turnturnturn, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest, RO
2022
It's Not My Music, Nicodim, Los Angeles, CA
Old, Used & New, Gern en Regalia, New York, NY
2021
Mosie Romney: ENERGY never, Nicodim Upstairs, Los Angeles
2020
Mosie Romney and Juan Guiterrez, Meredith Rosen Gallery, New York, NY
Evening Lark, Y2K Group, New York, NY
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
Tropical Frequencies, The Arts Center at Governors Island, New York, NY
Christmas in July, NADA East Broadway, New York, NY
Another Dimension, FRMoCA, Fall River, MA
Echopraxia, Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY
Let’s Stick Together, curated by XEVOLVEZ, 175 Pearl Street, Brooklyn, NY
2023
Waking Life, Amanita, New York, NY
Who Will Build the Ark?, Amity x Carlye Packer Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender, Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas, TX
2022
Sense of Place, Greene Naftali, New York, NY
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, curated by Mosie Romney, Nicodim, New York, NY
Looking Back / The 12th White Columns Annual - Selected by Mary Manning, White Columns, New York, NY
2021
Hollow Moon, Nicodim, New York, NY
Collective Interventions, Fine Arts Center Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AK
DU-GOOD, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA
PAPA RAGAZZE!, curated by Olivia Neutron Bomb, Galeria Nicodim, Bucharest, Romania (travelled from Los Angeles, CA)
Touch, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY
Salon de Peinture, Almine Rech, New York, NY
Friend Zone, curated by Vaughn Spann, Half Gallery, New York, NY
Different Strokes, curated by Marcus Jahmal, Almine Rech, Aspen, CO
Speech Sounds, More Pain, New York, NY
2019
Materia Prima, Gern en Regalia, New York, NY
Select Collections
Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Miami, FL
Pond Society, Shanghai, China
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China