Nikki rosato biography

Artist Nikki Rosato creates intricate portraits by cutting away at old maps, leaving only the roads and rivers behind like a network of blood vessels.

Rosato uses a Stanley knife to hand cut away all of the landmasses between the roads and waterways and then uses the delicate paper left to create portraits -- some in 2D and some sculptural pieces. For the sculptural pieces, such as a bust she created of herself, she first of all creates a structure out of packing tape to act as a mold and then shapes the map around the head, using a gel to stiffen the material and supporting the overall frame with an internal structure of small wires. Larger pieces require a number of different maps glued together.

Rosato told : "Through the removal of the land masses, the places almost become ambiguous since all of the text is lost. Unless someone really knows the roads and highways, it is almost impossible to identify the place."

She first started playing around with maps after findin

•

Bottom Video

EDUCATION
        MFA    School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University 
                           Studio Arts
        BA       University of Pittsburgh
                           Studio Arts, History of Art and Architecture (Summa Cum Laude)

AWARDS AND GRANTS
        Blanche E. Colman Award
        Tufts University Graduate Travel Grant (Switzerland)
        Solo Exhibition Award, Ferrara Showman galleri, New Orleans, LA
                Montague International Travel Grant (Italy)
        Graduate Merit Scholarship:

•

I find inspiration in how we map our own personal space and how those lines become blurred and modified when we form relationships with others. 

NIKKI ROSATO earned her MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in Prior to studying at SMFA, Rosato received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Pittsburgh. Rosato’s work has received multiple awards, including a Blanche E. Colman Award, and she has exhibited both nationally and internationally. In , Rosato had a solo exhibition titled Voyager at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH, and her work was also included in PaperWorks Refolded at Brea Gallery in Brea, CA.  Her work has been featured in numerous publications, including The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe, Canadian Geographic,