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Rachel Rose: Lake Valley

Online May 20–Aug. 16, 2020
A lushly illustrated landscape with a sulking animal in the foreground
Still from Lake Valley, 2016. HD video, 8:25. Courtesy of Pilar Corrias Gallery, London and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York/Rome.

Carnegie Museum of Art’s new online exhibition series launched with Lake Valley, an enchanting eight-minute video work by American artist Rachel Rose. With this visually rich, animated video, Rose mines themes and imagery from the history of children’s literature to create a dream-like story about loneliness, imagination, and longing for personal connection.

Debuting online while the museum’s doors remain closed, this timely digital presentation—drawn from the museum’s collection—brings the comfort and inspiration of art directly into the homes of museum visitors. Rose, who exhibited this work in the Carnegie International, 57th Edition, 2018 and the 2017 Venice Biennale, is known for her mesmerizing video installations that immerse the viewer in sound and image, merging cinematic innovation and sensory awareness. With Lake Valley, Rose painstakingly created a highly textured storybook environment through dense collage and cel animation, adding and transforming layers of fantasy and imaginative detail that invite close looking and repeated viewings.

Rachel Rose: Lake Valley is organized by Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director of Carnegie Museum of Art.

About the Artist

The work of Rachel Rose (b. 1986) explores how our changing relationship to landscape has shaped storytelling and belief systems. Rose draws from and contributes to a long history of cinematic innovation, and through her subjects—whether investigating cryogenics, the American Revolutionary War, modernist architecture, or the sensory experience of walking in outer space—she questions what it is that makes us human and the ways we seek to alter and escape that designation.

Recent solo exhibitions include Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2020); Fridericianum, Kassel (2019); Fondation Luma, Arles (2019); Fondazione Sandretto, Turin (2018); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2018); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz (2017); Museu Serralves, Porto (2016); The Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2016); The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016); The Serpentine Galleries, London (2015) and inclusion recently in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017) and the 32nd São Paulo Biennial (2016). She is the recipient of the Future Fields Award and the Frieze Artist Award.

Exhibition Images

A small furry creature sleeps in a dining room in front of a poster leaning against a wall. In the foreground you see a living room with a chair and rug and the first step of a staircase.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose
In a darkened bedroom a girl in a nightgown floats above her bed.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose
A collage setting depicts a dark forest and a small animated creature is running through the forest.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose
A small, furry creature is curled up sleeping under a tree while another spikey creature watches it sleep.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose
A girl with long dark hair sits in the backseat of a car looking out the window and biting her fingernails.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose
Fireworks burst over a dark forest scene.
Rachel Rose, Still from Lake Valley, 2016, Carnegie Museum of Art. © Rachel Rose

About the Online Exhibition Series

A first in the museum’s history, this series is dedicated to the museum’s film and video collection. This extension of the museum’s curatorial program into the digital sphere offers a new channel for local and global audiences to experience time-based works previously only accessible in-person. With this initiative, Carnegie Museum of Art is revolutionizing how visitors can engage with its significant holdings at a time when most cultural institutions are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

About Film and Video at Carnegie Museum of Art

The Department of Film and Video was among the first of its kind when it opened in 1970 as a three-year venture led by Sally Dixon, eventually growing into a full-fledged department that garnered national and international attention. In its first twenty years, the department worked with more than 150 artists including Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Joan Jonas, Carolee Schneemann, Hollis Frampton, Roger Jacoby, Bruce Conner, and Yvonne Rainer. The department was incorporated into the museum’s Department of Modern and Contemporary Art in 2003, including its significant collection of nearly 1,000 film and video works.

Explore the Department of Film and Video archives for more information.

Support

General operating support for Carnegie Museum of Art is provided by The Heinz Endowments and Allegheny Regional Asset District. Carnegie Museum of Art receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.