Drea LaRose

I confront issues of visual shifts between the analog and digital worlds. By scanning identifiable and familiar physical materials that often refer to brick and mortar substances and combining them with architectural imagery, I render them as digital representations—simulations—losing all tactility and identity. They’re further abstracted with photo editing software using computer-generated drop shadows, patterns, and gradients. Combining these “actual” and simulated layers complicates the often illusionist compositions, further disrupting the information and how it’s viewed. The tension of physical objectness and illusionistic representation is delicately balanced between these two states of being. This interference of information, authorship, and originality mirrors our own interactions with images on the internet. I contemplate these shared visual experiences, by creating controlled moments of the constantly fluctuating visual world around me. Drea LaRose is an upstate New York based artist working in photography, sculpture and public work. Her art has been shown in numerous exhibitions. She received her MFA from SUNY Albany where she was awarded the Distinguished MFA Thesis Award and the Terri Cosma Boor and Judy Brust Emerging Artist Award. In January 2020 she opened an alternative exhibition space, The Hallway at Second Street Studios located in downtown Troy where she has curated over 9 exhibitions, both virtual and physical. She is currently working and living in Troy, NY.