Wayne Roosa | Mattering the Soul

After 37 years of teaching at Bethel, Wayne Roosa is retiring and Bethel is celebrating his work with a physical exhibition and virtual art talk. Roosa's exhibition Mattering the Soul celebrates the union of the material and the spiritual, not in binary terms but as reciprocal terms. Their relationship is symbiotic, a Möbius paradox and pleasure, an elusive dynamic which is known more than thought. That knowing—that mattering—is best felt from inside the generative acts of creative making and resonant viewing.

All events are free and open to the public—appointment for a physical gallery visit and registration for virtual events is required. 

Covid-19 Precautions:
Please be prepared to wear a face covering, and follow social distancing best practices. The space limit is 16 people in the gallery at one time. Please see Bethel's website to make an appointment.

Virtual Event Sign-up:
Virtual Events are free and open to the public. Please request the Zoom link for either event here.

About the Artist:
Wayne Roosa is University Professor of Art History, former Department Chair at Bethel University, St. Paul, Minnesota, and former Chair of the New York Center for Art and Media Studies, in New York City. He is also a practicing artist.  His BFA and BA were earned at the University of Colorado; his PhD at Rutgers University. His essays on American painter, Stuart Davis have been published internationally.  He has served as juror for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Grants, as well as for the Minnesota State Arts Board.  He was an Andrew Mellon Research Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and a National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipient for work on Stuart Davis at Harvard University.   He has written catalogue essays for contemporary American artists including, Chris Larson, Failure (Hatje Cantz, 2008 and Gallery Magnus Müller, Berlin, Germany); Domestic Vision, Twenty-five Years of the Art of Joel Sheesley (Minneapolis: Lutheran University Press, 2008 and Valparaiso University); “Flooded” and Other Intimate Terrains by Cherith Lundin (Minnesota Center for Book Arts and Jerome Foundation, 2007); and Guy Baldwin’s kinetic art for Retrospectives: Guy Baldwin and Gary Hallman (Katherine E. Nash Gallery, University of Minnesota, 2007), as well as an essay on forty-four contemporary artists, titled “Dancing in the Dark/Waltzing in the Mystery: Art About Faith,” for the exhibition and book, The Next Generation:  Contemporary Expressions of Faith at MOBIA (Museum of Biblical Arts), New York City.  He has contributed essays to Image, Arts, and Books and Culture.  Most recently, he was commissioned for the article, Art and Religion (forthcoming, Wiley Encyclopedia of Philosophy of Religion. Editor: Charles Taliaferro; Associate Editor: Matthew Kapstein). His paintings have been shown in Minneapolis at the Traffic Zone Gallery, Gallery 308 and Form + Content Gallery; and in New York City at First Things Gallery, Buckley Memorial Gallery and NYCAMS.

Image: From the Old Poets of China series (detail), 14"x11", Chinese ink on paper, 2020