The painting "HEAD IN WINDOW" by Libby Rosa blurs the distinction between abstraction and representation. And that rational/irrational alignment is only part of the charge coming off her canvases, which seem to open all their trap doors at once – Yes you’re inside and outside. Yes the black line of the window is fractured, the red outline of the head pokes in with possibly one eye, and the grey and pink background swirls in from both sides. The painterly situations showcase the metamorphic, slippery nature of paint. Questioning where the representational motifs start and stop and where the painterly abstractions begin and end is central to how the work is visually experienced. Along with a play of visual understanding, Rosa works with the expressive qualities of color, using hues that create contradictions and mixed emotions such as peaceful/menacing. She intentionally uses tools and processes that connect the imagery to the mark making. She uses the traditional paint brush to render hair and a squeegee for flowing water, and cuts into the canvas to create holes and spaces to fill. Libby Rosa's work is featured in New American Paintings (MFA, issue 141) and Nightblock Magazine (edition I I ). She’s had solo exhibitions at Bibliowicz Gallery, Sweet Lorraine Gallery, and Experimental Gallery. She’s been included in group shows at Safe Gallery, Signal Gallery, Marquee Projects and Proto Gallery. Rosa has attended residencies at Trestle Art Space, ASMBLY Session 1 and VCU (SSP, 2015). She received her BFA from University of Wisconsin - Madison (2015) and her MFA from Cornell University (2019). Her work appeared recently in Fresh Paint, a group show at Art of Our Century gallery in Greenwich Village, New York City. The show ran from February 27 to March 22, 2020.