Ce Roser

Cecilia Roser, who works under the name Ce Roser, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925. Roser has been active in New York City as an artist since the 1960s. Ever since childhood, Roser had been painting and drawing. While studying in Berlin, Roser learned of a female artist named Käthe Kollwitz. Kollwitz, who worked until the day she died, was an inspiration to Roser. Although the experience with Hidai paid homage to her Asian ancestry, Roser's work does not fall into the East Asian art tradition. According to Peter Townsend, Roser's work seems “oriental only to those who don’t know oriental art.” Roser's work exemplifies the idea that art is a bridge between the verbal and pre-verbal world, a blending of the reality and perception of life. Roser believes that the “communication of painting can express the architecture, landscape, aerial views, free associations, random choices and unexpected juxtapositions of perceptions and feelings that constitute life experience.” Roser's abstraction and distinct style of purposefully using colors has been described as “suggesting a symbolic language of earth and mountain topography.” That critique continues on to stress that her work is a great example of "perception shifts" and her abstraction is able to “engage the viewer through ambiguity.” The use of expansive white space helps in her emphasis of crisp clean color which is used with distinct intention so much that Roser is regarded as "very good on the edges of her pictures, too, with plenty of action backed up into the corners." Her colorful style and broad brush strokes "become abstract elements that float over the picture plane." the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson. She is also a member of American Abstract Artists.

Women in the Arts Foundation (WIA) and Women Choose Women

Women in the Arts (WIA) was founded by both Cynthia Navaretta and Ce Roser as a protest against the chauvinism of art galleries. The foundation was created as a solution to the failure of galleries to actively exhibit works by women artists. The Women in the Arts Foundation continues work to overcome discrimination against women artists by providing information that aids women in functioning effectively as professional artists. The works that were exhibited were selected by a committee composed of WIA members, including Pat Passlof, Ce Roser, Sylvia Sleigh, Linda Nochlin, Elizabeth C. Baker, and Laura Adler. Roser also exhibited at the East Hampton Guild Hall "Artist of the Region," a show that sought to revel under-recognized talent.

Selected solo exhibitions

Ingber Gallery, NYC (1986, 1983, 1981, 1980, 1977) Elaine Benson Gallery, Long Island (1985, 1981, 1971) Ruth White Gallery, NYC (1967, 1964, 1961)