Established in January 2020, Sub Rosa began as a digital journal dedicated to highlighting points of inspiration—a reflection of the systematic groundwork behind one’s practice. Within these pages, you’ll find the people, objects, moments, locations, and histories that have motivated me.
All views are my own.
Chronicles | Midyear 2022
My intent for Sub Rosa is to provide access to curated information centered on art and activism. Valuing my time as an artist, I’ve been thinking of a way to offer readers the choice to pay for my chronicles. Below is an option to support my project for as little as $1 one time or however you’re comfortable.
All images by Alexandra Hulsey / embedded with source links.
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Favorites So Far
It's been a while, and I thought reconnecting via another chronicle made sense in the middle of the year. Maybe Sub Rosa is a bi-yearly thing now. Anyways, I'd like to share some of the art I've enjoyed seeing so far. Found in New Orleans Museum of Art this July, Dallas Art Fair in April, and Latino Cultural Center in May.
Some commonalities in these artworks below are that they're fantastical, colorful, shapely, entertaining, and offered me a much-needed pause.
Larry Bell, Pacific Red (VI), 2016-2017. New Orleans Museum of Art.
Gert & Uwe Tobais, I don’t Want Love, 2022. Cassina Projects at Dallas Art Fair.
Joan Miró, The Red Disk, 1960. New Orleans Museum of Art
Stefanie Popp, Obelism (Skilos), 2020. Keijsers Koning at Dallas Art Fair.
Michael Henry Hayden, Internal Clock, 2020. Moskowitz Bayse at Dallas Art Fair.
Vladimir Waone, Melody of Unkown Moments, 2021. Sapar Contemporary at Dallas Art Fair.
Areum Yang, Until I Find My Home, 2022. Derek Eller Gallery at Dallas Art Fair.
Carol Bove, Mood, 2017. New Orleans Museum of Art.
Kapoor, Anish, Untitled, 1997. New Orleans Museum of Art.
Elizabeth Osborne, Zinnias With Chair, 2017. Barry Campbell Gallery at Dallas Art Fair.
Raymond Yeboah, New Beginnings. Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, TX.
Fabian Treiber, This Place, 2022. Anat Ebgi Gallery at Dallas Art Fair.
100 W Corsicana
Located in Downtown Corsicana, 100 W Corsicana serves as a prestigious creative residency for rigorously working artists from visual to literary. I visited for the first time in May for 100W x 10YRS, a celebration of the conception of 100 W Corsicana. The building and its surroundings are hauntingly beautiful. It inspired me to continue a project I explored in college, where you ink up a portion of a textured surface, place paper on top, and press into it to make a monoprint.
The application for 2023 residencies closed on September 1st, and I’m eager to see the next cycle of artists.
100 W Corsicana
Downtown Corsicana
Downtown Corsicana
STOREFRONT
100 W Corsicana
100 W Corsicana
100 W Corsicana
100 W Corsicana
The residency also has a bookstore called STOREFRONT, where you’ll find literature and artwork by resident participants. I picked up Tatiana Ryckman’s I Don’t Think of You (Until I Do) and, more recently, Seven Samurai Swept Away in a River by Jung Young Moon.
Corsicana reminded me how much I appreciate old buildings and old things, which in a way brings me to our road trip to New Orleans.
New Orleans
I've been to NOLA a lot, in fact, twice this year already, but I visited the New Orleans Museum of Art for the first time in July. It's relatively small, and its curation is one of my favorites I've ever seen! The vibrant modern art galleries displayed household named heartthrobs from Warhol, Modigliani, Kasner, and Miró with many others to have a unique conversation I felt like I was a part of. At the same time, the contemporary gallery focused on new acquisitions of work by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and female-identifying artists, which was badass in concept and execution. Outside was a massive sculpture garden that placed artwork complementary to the native swampy environment that felt otherworldly.
New Orleans has a lot of dualities to note, like placement/displacement, authenticity/facade, beauty/dismay, and stillness/chaos. I'm glad to have reflected on these this January and July, which felt especially meaningful in the context of 2022, if that makes sense. Some things feel new, some old, and there’s some new/old feelings, plus everything in between.
L O C A L
Dallas Artist Resources
Texas froze again in February, flooding circulated through the city in August, and temperatures reached as high as 109°F. throughout the summer, while the Dallas Climate Action seems over-ambitious for a city with 62 desert infrastructures.
One of the most significant ways individuals can make a change is to stop or cut down on meat and dairy in whatever way they can—also, taking agency on your own money. Consider alternative options for how much plastic accompanies what you're buying, what excess looks like for you, donating instead of throwing away, and research if the companies you shop at show actions against their role in climate change.
M U S I C
Something to listen to post-storm
Chronicles | January 2022
An Italian painter, a contemporary NYC photographer, Dallas's City Hall survey, and Valentine's Day playlist for January's 2022 chronicles.
My intent for Sub Rosa is to provide access to curated information centered on art and activism. Valuing my time as an artist, I’ve been thinking of a way to offer readers the choice to pay for my chronicles. Below is an option to support my project for as little as $1 one time or however you’re comfortable.
All images and links are directed to sources.
A R T
Domenico Gnoli illuminated objects in question and experienced their magic through painting
Fondazione Prada is a contemporary art museum co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli. In Milian, the museum's exhibition Domenico Gnoli showcases the artist's work from 1949 to 1969. The Prada namesake museum has steered away from poignant references to fashion, but Gnoli's paintings create a merge between garment and painting.
Domenico Gnoli (Rome, 1933 – New York, 1970) had worked as an illustrator, and set designer, then turned to large-scale paintings.
From the article The Peculiar Perfectionism of Domenico Gnoliby by Emma Harper for Apollo Magazine:
"As Gnoli himself explained in an interview with JeanLuc Daval for Le Journal de Genève, 'My themes come from the world around me, familiar situations, everyday life; because I never actively mediate against the object, I experience the magic of its presence.' As opposed to Pop's celebration of consumer culture, his paintings illuminate the objects in question. And while they can border on abstraction – it's easy to become so engrossed in a stitch, a pattern, or even a colour that you almost forget what you're looking at – his paintings revere the mundane, which is charged with a life force just outside of view."
Robe verte, 1967, by Domenico Gnoli. Image source: AnOther | original credits: Private Collection courtesy of Luxembourg + Co © Domenico Gnoli, by SIAE 2021
Capigliatura femminile, Riga in mezzo n.1,1965, by Domenico Gnoli. Image Source: AnOther | original credits: Collezione Prada, Milano © Domenico Gnoli, by SIAE 2021
Fauteuil N° 2, 1967, by Domenico Gnoli. Image Source: AnOther | original credits: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid © Domenico Gnoli, by SIAE 2021
Up and coming contemporary photographer Donavon Smallwood is one to watch
Donavon Smallwood’s series Languor. Image source: donavonsmallwood.com
Donavon Smallwood’s series Languor captures Black leisure at Central Park. For context, the word languor means the state of feeling, often pleasant, of tiredness or inertia. He took the images during the beginning of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. The series was shot on black and white medium format film, lending a serine dream-like feeling. From January 21st to March 12th, 2022, images from Langour and a newer series, Beebe, will be displayed at The Print Center in Philadelphia.
Donavon Smallwood’s series Languor. Image source: donavonsmallwood.com
Exhibition statement from The Print Center:
A life-long resident of Harlem, Smallwood turned to the park as a refuge in the difficult days of lockdown and isolation due to COVID. However, it was not the bucolic landscape that drew his attention in the park, but the people within it – both neighbors and passersby. It was important to Smallwood for his sitters to feel comfortable – at home. “Its [“Languor’s”] subject is what it’s like to be a Black person in nature,” says Smallwood. Picturing Black people in this context references the history of Seneca Village, a 19th century Black community at the heart of what is now Central Park. “Languor” is influenced by that history as well as the artist’s own interest in the Romantic poet and artist William Blake, who is known for his transcendental works.
Smallwood will be doing a virtual artist talk presented by The Print Center on February 10th. Information is linked here.
Finding Donavon Smallwood’s work directed me to learn about Seneca Village. In an effort to commemorate the history, Central Park Conservancy has shared information on the Seneca Village community that was once a section of what is now Central Park linked here.
Both artworks mentioned can be purchased in book form!
“Domenico Gnoli” catalog available for purchase at Fondazione Prada. Image Source: Fondazione Prada.
Donavon Smallwood’s photography book Languor available for purchase at Trespasser. Image source: Trespasser.
L O C A L
Tell the city of Dallas what you really think
…about the city’s land-use policy! Here is a link to a survey conducted by City Hall where you can leave input on housing, parks, infrastructure, etc.