“IN SPITE OF IT” MICHAEL ROSE’S SOLO SHOW AT THE UNTITLED SPACE DRAWS A CROWD

On February 21st, 2025, Michael Rose’s second solo exhibition with The Untitled Space, “In Spite of It,” successfully opened with a lively artist reception. Rose’s work attracted an impressive turnout of New York City art lovers and collectors, who filled the gallery literally wall to wall in awe of his emotive body of work. The show was curated by gallery founder Indira Cesarine, and remains on view through February 28th, 2025. 

In this solo exhibition, In Spite of It, Brooklyn-based artist and composer Michael Rose explores the intricacies of emotion, memory, and perception through his distinct approach to portraiture and the human form. With this series, Rose presents a body of work that hovers in a space between clarity and dissolution, exploring themes of alienation, fragmentation, and the tension between the permeable and isolated self.

Rose’s paintings transcend traditional representation, pushing boundaries of the human form. His works shift between states of near-recognition and abstraction, where features dissolve into ethereal atmospheres or sharp contrasts emerge from a haze. The human figure becomes both clear and elusive, a dynamic dance of form and formlessness, where auras, shadows, and edges phase in and out of alignment.

The works in In Spite of It take on a prismatic, iridescent quality, mirroring the emotional complexity of their subjects. This quality is enhanced through Rose’s unique, layered painting technique—combining slow glazing and rapid, spontaneous brushwork to create surfaces that are rich in texture and visual depth. Each painting seems to hover between memory and reality amalgamation, as if capturing the raw sensation of a fleeting emotional state, unbound by traditional visual norms. The interplay between meticulously prepared surfaces and impulsive gestures gives way to anatomical studies of emotion, where the internal landscape is as vivid and fluctuating as the external one. 

“Like the iridescent visual effect of light passing through barely offset films— such as oil resting a molecule’s width above water on the pavement—an iridescence of emotion and self can form in these figures.” – Michael Rose

Painted on a variety of surfaces including wood, canvas, linen, and polyester, these works break free from conventional representations of the body. Rose’s deliberate focus on the thinness of skin and the tension between the self and its environment suggests that the line between the body and the world around it is not just porous but fragile, impossible to define, yet constantly in flux.

Through In Spite of It, Michael Rose continues to push the boundaries of emotional expression in art, inviting the viewer to experience a profound meditation on the human condition—one that is both personal and universal, defined by constant flux, transformation, and renewal.

“These figures form in spite of this paradox, the gnawing growths that attempt to swallow or consume them, and the constant process of generation and dissolution. They resist naturalism not to obscure, but to express something not easily depicted: how a feeling, or a complex chord of sensations, looks without regard to representations aligned with the visual electromagnetic spectrum. The resulting images are like anatomical studies of emotional states as if seeing from the inside out.” – Michael Rose

About Michael Rose
Michael Rose is a painter, musician, and curator based in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA in Fine Arts from The New School: Parsons (2020) and a BFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2013), where he also completed a residency at the RISD European Honors Program in Rome (2012). Rose’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at Artego (2024) and The Untitled Space (2023), as well as group exhibitions at venues such as Bendheim Gallery (2023), Field Projects (2022), and Kellen Gallery (2021). In addition to his painting practice, he has co-curated group exhibitions at various locations and has released an album of synthetic piano music. Rose’s upcoming solo show at The Untitled Space in 2025 will further expand on his exploration of emotional landscapes through his distinct visual language.

About The Untitled Space
Founded in 2015 by artist and curator Indira Cesarine, The Untitled Space is a contemporary art gallery located in Tribeca, New York. Renowned for its commitment to inclusivity and focus on feminist and socially engaged themes, the gallery provides a dynamic platform for underrepresented voices in the art world. The Untitled Space has been featured in prestigious publications such as Vogue, Forbes, W Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Dazed, Artnet, Newsweek, and The New York Times among many others. Read More about The Untitled Space exhibitions on Wikipedia. 

Join The Untitled Space for the opening reception on February 21st, 2025, to experience the illusive and often haunting imagery of In Spite of It, and immerse yourself in the complex emotional landscapes by Michael Rose.

Photos by Sophia Keefe for The Untitled Magazine

Socials: @michaelztrose @untitledspaceny
Website: https://untitled-space.com

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