Rose Cory is a multi-disciplinary artist primarily known for her stage persona, Rose Wood. Her introduction to the power of live performance started early with stage and close-up magic from age 10-19. Her educational pursuits started as a math major at NYU and ended with a BFA Honors from the School of Visual Arts.
Critical grounding of her art education
came through apprenticing with teacher / artist John Button while attending SVA . This direct experience with a working artist revealed the need to finance an art life and deepen her connection to craftsmanship and community . In response, she trained in calligraphy, book binding, and antique restoration. Rose opened an antique restoration studio in 1988 and the commitment to transmission of hard won experience continues in mentoring young talent in artful craftsmanship today . Her response to the AIDS crisis in 1988 led to the creation of an AIDS awareness outreach organization that ran until 2006.
In late 1999, gender identity issues came to the forefront for Rose.
She initially turned to performance as a way to sort out this experience. Questions of identity resolved and clouds transformed in the cathartic exchange of live performance. In performance she found the personal can be shared publicly and mutually benefit both performer and audience in confronting otherness. Rose began a professional performance career, and pursued gender transition. She had surgery in 2009.
In 2007, The Box opened in NYC, which was to become a second home for Rose.
As their headline act, her work is central to the club’s brand identity for shock and awe. A second The Box venue opened in London in 2011 and began the international phase of her performance career. Her full time performance career expanded, balancing domestic and international touring for the next 10 years. Like all live performers, the 2021 Pandemic has paused normal touring and performance and required development of new creative outlets.
In 2019, Rose began research for a project on the work of the poet Arthur Rimbaud.
The goal of the project is to produce a full length solo show based on the prose poem “A Season in Hell”. Research for the production has opened up new art practices and created a series of visual works at the intersection of craft , fine arts and street art . Each visual series demands its own focus and will be shown in galleries and offered publicly in the street as response to the pandemic . As we wait for NYC to fully reopen, Rose is using this time to focus on the project.
