About James Rose:

I have made work to identify people in power responsible for social injustice. Their social, environmental and financial crimes are excused by our system of free market capitalism. Since the 1980s, free market has been purposely and wrongfully conflated with freedom. I made a body of work which includes politicians, fossil fuel executives and Wall Street bankers. I started to think about what I can directly do something about. I live in Bay Ridge, with views of the Verrazano Narrows and NYC Harbor. Neighborhoods like mine are the last stop for plastic waste before it ends up in the ocean. I started to make paintings about the pollution that I can go out and clean up. I want others to see what I see and feel what I feel. A plastic bag floating down the road or a straw sitting in the drainage grate is on its way to the ocea ...