Keep Me in The Loop
Julia Roshkow
GALLERY III
Julia Roshkow, Crystal Trio - Blue and Green, 2024, Mixed Media (1083 crystals glued to three giclee printed grids), 14 x 26 (framed).
August 8 - 30, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, August 8 from 4-6pm
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce Keep Me in the Loop, a mixed media installation by Julia Roshkow in which the loop potholder serves as the organizing principle for a body of work that is a color study, an exploration of grid-based geometries, an experiment in reproducing the same image in multiple media, and, finally, a deeply nostalgic visual tribute to an American icon.
Keep Me in the Loop is a story told in five chapters. Since Roshkow is an art historian by training, Chapter 1 is wall text telling the history of the loop potholder. Chapter 2 consists of vintage potholder loom packaging dating from the 1930s through the 1970s, another historical reference. Chapter 3 is actual woven loop potholders arranged in trios with three different patterns in eight color stories for a total of 24 unique designs. Chapter 4 is composed of Roshkow’s signature crystal artworks. These works are the crystal equivalent of the woven potholders and are also organized as trios. Chapter 5 is a collection of 24 giclee prints based on the grids used for the crystal trios but larger in scale. Hung together, these prints form a larger, or macro grid in contrast to the smaller, or micro grids of of the individual prints themselves. This macro grid can be viewed as a Cartesian plane, with the x-axis representing color and the y-axis representing pattern.
Keep Me in the Loop is Roshkow’s first gallery-sized mixed media installation. Her preferred medium is the crystal collage which she makes by gluing crystals to giclee printed grids. Her work exists in that liminal space between art, design, and craft. It is recognizable as art, inspired by design, and her process is akin to craft.
This installation is part of a series called Surfaces in which Roshkow is reimagining historical and contemporary textile, needlework, and tile patterns. The name Surfaces is derived from the term surface design, the creation of artwork that can be applied to a surface such as fabric, wallpaper, floor coverings and other home décor. These patterns are often seamless and usually repeat. As such, the Surfaces works are both repetitive and decorative by intention. She is drawn to these patterns because recreating them in crystal transforms them into something mysterious and beautiful, while still retaining the comfort of the familiar.
Roshkow was born in New York City in 1955. Currently she lives and works in Long Island City, Queens. She received a B.A. in Art History from Harvard in 1977, but has had no formal training in either studio art or design. Prior to becoming an artist, she has been a physician Board Certified in Diagnostic Radiology, half of the flower girl dress design team Miss Pym, and an award-winning greeting card designer known as Cartesian Graphics. Her art work has been shown in galleries in Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and on Long Island, and someday she hopes to exhibit work in all five boroughs. Keep Me in the Loop is Roshkow’s first solo show in New York City.
View the Press Release here.