Lucy Rovetto expresses her vision through a variety of mixed media including charcoal, markers, ink, magazine cut-outs, found material, and paint. Passionate about words, she collages old bible and medical book pages for visual value and texture and often adds illegible or nonsensical hand-written text. When she is not drawing, gluing, and
smearing paint she will pick up her camera to shine a light on what may otherwise go unnoticed. Her work is mostly figurative, but not meant to be taken literally. Described as introspective, expressive, and provocative, her personal stories and memories invite you to remember your own.
She has exhibited in group and solo shows in NY, NJ and PA. Her work is in public and private collections nationally and internationally including the former Jersey CIty Museum. In 2015 she won a scholarship to Manhattan Graphic Center, NY and in 2020 she was the recipient of a JCAC Arts Relief Grant. From 2015-2019 she was visual art
curator for Jersey City Theater Center.
Rovetto received her BFA from New Jersey City University, with a specialization in Printmaking. She lived in British Columbia, Canada where she led small group Art Workshops, Washington State where she worked at The Point Elliot Art Center, and South Africa where she was Artist Assistant to Sculptor Anton Smit before returning to
her native Jersey City where she currently works and lives.
Statement:
I’ve come to understand myself as a storyteller. I am constantly asking questions about power and fear, sometimes using a medium that is symbolic, for example, work meant to be handled, maybe prickly and awkward to the touch. I prefer to work fast and direct. If I go back into a piece it’s mainly to scrape out, dig up, cover over, or scratch away. My subjects depict oppressors who are vulnerable and oppressed. My characters are over or under-sized, misformed, odd, offensive, and ridiculous caricatures of myself. Whether the story I am telling is personal or universal, celebratory, or heart-wrenching, I expect to hear the viewer’s version of the story.
My painting/printmaking influences are expressionist and figurative…Kathe Kollwitz, Georges Roualt, Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Philip Guston, and the “raw art” of Gene Mann. Some of my photography influences are the black and white images of Lilo Raymond and Francesca Woodman.