Saskatoon Star-Phoenix: Political, social, COVID-19 commentary on display with new Saskatoon art exhibition, by Matt Olson
“That powerful social movement in the United States, coupled with the ‘toxic politics’ exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, sparked their collaboration for their latest exhibition, Journal of the Plague Year.
“On display at the small 330g art gallery in Saskatoon, Journal of the Plague Year features the varied works of Rosenwald and Rosen, joined by the overarching theme of responding to a socially rife 2020.
“Rose’s works consist mostly of painted signs, depicting images and phrases as a cacophony of rage and reaction to the social climate of the world. Inspired by a man carrying a sad sign showing a single hand-drawn banana during the 2017 march, her works are her own collection of protest signs targeting topics ranging from climate change to the world political landscape, she said.
“’I just started to make all sorts of signs, about my feelings or stuff in politics. It became a thing I did daily … and then when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of material.‘”