About
Born in Philadelphia, PA in 1944, artist Rhoda Rosenberg received a certificate in painting and drawing from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1966, and then a BFA in printmaking from the Fine Arts Department at Temple University in 1976. She later received an MFA in printmaking from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, where she began teaching after graduation in 1982. Rosenberg has also taught at the Montserrat College of Art in Beverly, MA and at Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Rosenberg’s Russian Jewish family has been influential to her work, particularly her father Samuel, a butcher, her mother Sylvia, and her elder brother Nate. Rosenberg’s maternal grandmother Rebecca, “Bubbie,” also lived with the family, and childhood home was often filled with relatives. Although her mother’s family was musical, Rosenberg decided at a young age that she was committed to visual art. Her family supported her choice—Rosenberg’s first collage Rosenberg made at age seven was kept by her mother and still preserved in the family archives. Close family ties formed during childhood have been the subject of the Rosenberg’s work for the past decade and will likely continue to inspire her in the future.
In 1979 Rosenberg was a Finalist in Printmaking for a Massachusetts Council on the Arts Grant. In 2003, she was recognized for outstanding teaching with School of the Museum of Fine Art’s Russel T. Smith Award, and has received a SMFA’s Faculty Enrichment Grant for her work in South Africa. In 2005 she received a grant from the Artist Resource Trust Grant at the Berkshire Taconic Foundation, and an Atlantic Papers Materials Award at Boston Printmakers North American Print Biennial in 2007.
Despite a demanding teaching schedule, Rosenberg has exhibited prints and artist’s books in numerous shows every year since 1979. Recent one-person exhibits include "Matrilineal Theads", Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA (2012); "The Shape of Memory", Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA (2010); “Rhoda Rosenberg: Fragments of the Past,” Hallspace Gallery, Dorchester, MA (2010); “New Work,” Artist Proof Gallery, Johannesburg, (2008); “On Their Own,” The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA (2004); and “Recent Work: Etchings and Books,” Emmanuel College, Boston (1993).
A master printmaker, Rosenberg owns and operates the Merrimac Printmaking Studio out of her home in Merrimac, MA.
“And so it is with our past. It is a labor in vain to recapture it: all the efforts of our intellect must prove futile. The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in the sensation which that material object will give us) which we do not suspect. And as for the object, it depends on chance whether or not we come upon it or not before we ourselves must die.”
Photographs of artwork by Clements/Howcroft, Nancy Palmer, Jim Fitzgerald & David Caras.