Christian Rosa

File:Christian Rosa .jpg

Christian Rosa (born 12 September 1982) is known for his sparse, abstract paintings built up from individual shapes and marks amid large expanses of raw, untreated canvas. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Rosa lives and works in Vienna and Los Angeles.

Personal life

Rosa was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and was educated in Vienna, Austria, where his parents moved to when he was still young. He studied under Daniel Richter at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

Exhibitions

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Christian Rosa I Compton or Schiele

Rosa first began exhibiting in Vienna in 2008. He had his first major gallery solo show at Contemporary Fine Arts in Berlin in May 2014, " Love's gonna Save the Day" during Berlin Gallery Weekend, soon followed by a major solo show at White Cube gallery's Mason's Yard location in the historic St. James district of London. “Put Your Eye in Your Mouth” opened 20 March 2015. In 2014/15 he exhibited frequently throughout Europe and the United States.

He has participated in several international art shows, including the Venice Biennale "Momenta" in 2013, as well as the Brucennial 2012 in New York. Though he grew up in Europe, his background made him an important ambassador in a major group exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in 2014, “Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America”.

Selected exhibitions

• No means no....Alright, Galeria Mario Sequeira, Portugal, 2017
• Kardinal Koenig Art Prize, Salzburg, 2017
• The Art Show, Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Japan, 2017
• Machs's Dir Selbst, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, 2016
• Now it's Over, Galerie Meyer Kainer, Vienna, 2016
• More than Nothing, White Cube São Paulo, 2015
• Mason's Yard, Whitecube Gallery, London, 2015
• I'm in love with the Coco, Kunstverein Heilbronn, 2015
• The Shell (Landscapes, Portraits & Shapes, Almine Rech, Paris, 2015
• Airports for Shadows and Dust ARTUNER, 2014
• Love's Gonna Save the Day CFA, Berlin, 2014
• Christian Rosa & Colin Snapp, Ibid. Los Angeles, CA, 2013
• Momenta, Venice Biennale, Venice, 2013
• ReMap Athens, with Jannis Varelas, Athens, 2013
• Portraits of generations, The Hole New York, 2012
• Brucennial 2012, New York, 2012
• NeoSI: neue Situationistische Internationale, Kunstraum Schattendorf, 2011
• *Grr*(eece) & *Hmmm*, Athens Biennale, Athens, 2011
• Boom&Boom, StudioMühlgasse, Vienna, 2011
• Blind Sculpture, Greene Naftali Gallery, NY, 2010
• Vienna Biennale 2010, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, 2010
• Status Quo, Daniel Richter Class, Kunstraum am Schauplatz, Vienna, 2010
• Schimmliges Brot, Punk-Klasse, Daniel Richter Class, Schlechtriem, 2010
• Brothers White Box Project, Project Birch, NY, 2010

Projects

Rosa is the founder and prime artist behind "Grande Vista". This project involves a unique artist in residency program in an attempt to expose emerging artists to curators, galleries and collectors in Los Angeles.

Rosa was the executive producer for "A Wonderful Cloud", a film about exploring a former romance written and directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko. Only barely fictional (Kotlyarenko and his costar were once a couple), A Wonderful Cloud had its world premiere on 15 March at the 2015 SXSW festival.

Raymond Pettibon Forgery

In January 2020 Rosa was accused of forging a painting by acclaimed artist Raymond Pettibon. Sources suggest rosa stole the artwork from Pettibon's temporary studio in Paris before finishing the unfinished piece himself and was offering it on the secondary art market for a 7 figure sum. Pettibon’s studio became alerted to the fact that the work was being offered, and alerted the authorities. It is not clear whether the accusations leveled against Rosa would amount to criminal conduct or whether there is an innocent explanation for how the painting was created and got into his possession.