essay by director lou anne colodny

Salvatore La Rosa at “under the Bridge Art Space” 2025

 Salvatore La Rosa’s body of work is powerful and sensitive and always in a state of motion. The works in this exhibition only scratch the surface of his enormous art making practice. We have selected but a few pieces which embody La Rosa’s path of abstraction, his process and his established place in Miami’s art world.  

His work exemplifies the learning of the formal aspects of art and the courage to leap to experimentation and break the rules he so diligently learned. His use of underpainting, layering collaged elements on canvas/paper enabled him to develop his own private lexicon of repeated shapes, scratching and mark making.

Many of La Rosa’s works exude an enigmatic darkness. The backgrounds are dark, although not pure black. His underpainting of green, pink, orange or gray peek out from  the blackness, along with drawn grids, raised dots and tiny lines which give the work energy and vibrancy. These marks move and contort throughout the compositions sometimes creating a calming effect and/or frenetic energy. Many of his collaged elements are irregularly shaped as they are ripped and torn from unresolved pieces or simply found in stacks of compulsively drawn or painted elements excavated around his studio/home.

Several works reflect La Rosa’s attraction to Byzantine mosaics he studied while visiting Istanbul. Those influences become apparent in the borders of his canvas and paper pieces which are richly decorated and patterned. Upon close examination, calligraphic elements appear as do symbols of the universe. These various elements are pushing at and with each other, creating a dance or a struggle. There is tension and relief. Dark and light.  

LaRosa experiments with the edges of his works. Several are no longer rectangular or square because he has collaged elements skewing that geometry. Often he cuts out shapes in the work and leaves them entirely open, allowing negative space to become fully recognized spaces. He continues these practices in his sculptural pieces both those suspended and those on pedestals. His works are very intuitive and expressive. His enormous respect and understanding of materials and the formal aspects of painting have allowed him to break the rules. His Kent State University professor Harold Kitner encouraged his experimentation while teaching La Rosa the formal aspects of art.

One further understands La Rosa’s  process when looking at the small sculptures and suspended works- many preserve things which fascinate him. Some items he finds, others are given him and many come from his past. He is not unlike Miro, who had an affinity for found objects. La Rosa’s collections became a wealth of materials for him to reinvest in his work. Pencil shavings, cut pieces of canvas, threads from a fraying blanket, painted wood blocks and globs of paint sculptures glorify the richness of the “gems “ found in his studio. He orders this chaos of objects by placing many of them, on top of other stacks, reworking and /or rearranging his work. All of it is in a state of flux… with new solutions waiting for La Rosa. He strives to create and to recognize the right rhythmic relationships to satisfy his creative instincts. He is very fond of process. He is fascinated with materials. He often works on more than one work at a time - moving them, turning them over, only to replace and rearrange them until they are precisely what he desires. His paintings/drawings/sculptures which appear to be spontaneously created, often take weeks, months, and even years to complete. They are works in progress, ever changing and strongly interrelated.

Salvatore J. La Rosa was Born Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1941, lives in Miami, and taught at Miami-Dade Community College. He matriculated at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio where he received his BFA in1964; and his MA in 1968. In 1975 he was in the Whitney Museum Biennial in New York. His solo exhibitions include: Bridge Red, North Miami, FL ,  MIA Gallery, Miami International Airport, University of Miami, The New Gallery, Coral Gables, Florida, Broward Community College, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Barbara Gillman Gallery, Miami, Florida, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami, Florida, University of Maine, Augusta, Maine, Kent University, Kent, Ohio.