
Opening Reception: Friday, April 17 from 5 to 8PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, April 18 starting at 1PM
207 E Buffalo St, Suite 404, Milwaukee, WI 53202 (Marshall Building, 4th floor)
Kim Storage Gallery is pleased to present Reflections and Undercurrents, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Katherine Steichen Rosing that immerses viewers in the invisible forces shaping forests and watersheds amid climate disruption. Rosing’s work reveals both the resilience and fragile balance of ecosystems under stress, asking what persists—and what quietly disappears—beneath the surface of the landscapes we love.
In this body of work, she abstracts hidden ecological processes into vividly hued, densely layered surfaces, merging the visible and invisible through inscribed marks that are later veiled by color, like root systems and currents we cannot fully see. Reflections and Undercurrents introduces submerged forests of yellow-green trunks rising through ultramarine floodwaters, holding the tension between visual allure and the unsettling question of whether we witness temporary inundation or irreversible transformation.
Grounded in long-term observation, environmental research, and collaborations with scientists, Rosing’s practice addresses extreme weather cycles—drought, deluge, and intensifying storms—that leave forests stressed and vulnerable, from local neighborhoods to distant northern ecosystems. She understands painting as a way to convey the felt experience of environmental change, creating a contemplative space where beauty and unease coexist and where subtle shifts in color, light, and texture echo broader ecological transformations.
Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, Rosing is known for environmentally engaged paintings and immersive installations exploring relationships among forests, watersheds, and climate. She has exhibited in over one hundred solo and group shows in museums and galleries, including the Rockford Art Museum, Amos Eno Gallery (New York), the Arts Club (Washington, DC), and the Museum of Wisconsin Art. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections, and she holds an MFA from Northern Illinois University. She received the 2022 Forward Art Prize.
Image: Blue Damselflies Flitting About My Kayak, Acrylic on canvas, 44 x 55"