Fiona Ross lives and works in Richmond, VA.  Her work is shown in national and international exhibitions, including New York; Seoul, South Korea; Minsk, Belarus and Beijing, China.  She has art in the corporate collections of Capital One, Markel Corporation and Wells Fargo, as well as the Tyrone Guthrie Center in the Republic of Ireland.  She teaches sculpture at the University of Richmond.

Education

2001
M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

1988
M.S.T., Fordham University, New York, NY

1987
B.A., English Literature, Fordham University, New York, NY

 

Select Solo Exhibitions

2019
Fractal Eclipse and Dislocation of a More Complete Pattern, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2018
Interplay, Wilton Companies Gallery, Richmond, VA

2016
Dislocation of a More Complete Pattern, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2014
Complement of Closure, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2012
Layers and Competition, Fine Arts Center Gallery, Blue Ridge Community College, Weyers Cave, VA

2011
Trace of a Moving Point, Emerson, McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, Virginia

2010
Walking the Parallels to Terminus, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA

2008
Universal Reveries, Quirk Gallery, Richmond, VA
The Thread in the Labyrinth, Anderson Gallery, Richmond, VA
Fiona Ross, ADA Gallery Richmond, VA

2007
A Line is a Thing That Moves in Time, H&F Fine Arts, Mt. Rainer, MD

2006
Material, Process and Meaning, Concord University, WV

2005
Mattering, Lora Robbins Gallery, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
Fiona Ross, Robert Rentz Gallery, Richmond, VA

2004
Works in Ceramic, Doris Ulmann Gallery, Berea College, Berea, KY

2002
New Sculptures, Cressman Gallery, Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA
Cotermination, Clear Space, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2001
MFA Show, Anderson Gallery, VCU, Richmond, VA

 

Select Group Exhibitions

2022
Homeward Bound: Juried Triennial, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Spinning Plates, Odetta Digital, Ellen Hackl Fagan, Curator, Shim Art Network

2021
Good Will, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Pandemic Proof, Odetta Digital, Curator, Shim Art Network

2020
Sea Change, Odetta Digital, Ellen Hackl Fagan, Curator, Shim Art Network

2019
Glean, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
20/20, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Power and Beauty: Women Artists from the Collection, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.
Ship of Fellows, Rawls Museum Arts, Courtland, VA (catalog)
Daegaya Artists Association 20th Anniversary Special Exhibition, Gaya Culture and Art Center, Goryeong, South Korea. (catalog)

2018
Hot Hot Hot, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2017
Homeward Bound, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA

2016
View Find, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
University of Richmond Faculty Show, Capital One, Richmond, VA

2015
VMFA Fellowship Program 75th Anniversary Exhibition, Fiona Ross, Pam Sutherland and Kendra Wadsworth, Workhouse Art Center, Lorton, VA
Radius 250, Artspace Gallery , Richmond, VA

2014
Shaped Polarities: Allan Rosenbaum and Fiona Ross, The Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Gallery, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA
Scorch, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2013
Time On Our Hands, Eckhaus Gallery, Kutztown University, PA
Haze, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Next, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2012
What’s Inside, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke, VA
Concerning Line, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA
Forms of Suggestion, Chroma Gallery, Charlottesville, VA
Treasures from the Vault, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA

2011
The Gift, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA
Drawing Analogies, The Athenaeum, Alexandria, VA
Virginia Artists 2011, Charles H. Taylor Arts Center, Hampton, VA

2010
Spirited Calligraphy, Earnest Welch Gallery, GSU, Atlanta, GA
Fiona Ross and Tanja Softic, Town Center, Capital One, Richmond VA

2009
Seoul Art Festival, Seoul, Korea (catalogue)
Stimulus Plan, ADA Gallery, Richmond,VA
Preview: Walking the Parallels to Terminus, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA

2008
Committed, Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD
Salon Selectives, ADA Gallery, Richmond, VA

2007
Sparkling Fresh Art, New York, NY
Bethesda Painting Awards, Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD
Artificium of Humanitas, Seoul Hae-tae Gallery, Seoul, South Korea
Artificium of Humanitas, Shang-Shang Gallery, Beijing, China
New American Paintings, Exhibition in Print, Mid-Atlantic, #69
Radius 250, Art Space, Richmond, VA
Works on Paper, National, LBI Institute for Arts and Sciences, NK

2006
Collection, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, New York, NY
Artificium of Humanitas, Daegu Cultural Arts Center, Daegu, South Korea
From America, Museum of Modern Fine Arts, Minsk, Belarus
25th Annual Art Gala, Corcoran Museum, WPA/C, Washington, DC

2005
Mixed Bag, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, New York, NY
Material Matters, Zone: Chelsea Center for the Arts, New York, NY
New American Paintings, Exhibition in Print, Mid-Atlantic, #57
Select III, Corcoran Museum, WPA/C, Washington, D.C.
School’s Out!, Catonsville Gallery, CCBC, Baltimore, MD (NCECA)

2004
New Delhi 4, All India Gallery, New Delhi, India
Fiona Ross and Travis Townsend, FAB Gallery, VCU, Richmond, VA
Off Center, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA
Crafts National 38, Zoller Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, PA
Amazing Clay, Too, Staunton Arts Center, Staunton, VA

2003
Summer Exhibition, Museum of Contemporary Art, Washington, DC
Inner Landscapes, Astra Gallery, Richmond, VA
40th Annual Juried Exhibition, Rawls Museum of Art, Courtland, VA
Thumbnails and…, Main Art Gallery, Richmond, VA

2002
Exposed: Self-Portraits, Artkrush.com, Internet Art Magazine
Matchbox/Shoebox, FAB Gallery, Richmond, VA
Small Works, Eric Schindler Gallery, Richmond, VA

2001
Emerging Artists (catalog), Barn Gallery, M.T.S.U., Murfreesboro, TN
Porcelain, 2001, Esmay Fine Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
Prevailing Winds, Young and Constantin Gallery, Wilmington, VT

2000
Rebecca Murtaugh and Fiona Ross, VCU Arts Atrium, Richmond, VA
Biennial 2000, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA
Amazing Clay, Staunton Arts Center, Staunton, VA
Kata, Eric Schindler Gallery, Richmond, VA

1999
Tyros, SOTA Gallery, V.C.U. Richmond, VA
Family, Eric Schindler Gallery, Richmond, VA
River of Fire (catalog), Longwood College, Farmville, VA

 

SELECT PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Republic of Ireland Capital One
Markel Corporation
Wachovia Securities
Wells Fargo

 

Fellowships and Awards

2011
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship

2007
Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Ireland, International Fellowship, 2007

2006
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship

2005
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship

2004
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Fellowship

2002
Vermont Studio Center Fellowship, Johnson, Vermont

1999-01
Virginia Commonwealth University, Scholarship

 

Academic Appointments

University of Richmond, Richmond, VA
2002 to present- Adjunct Professor, Sculpture
Fall 2001- Visiting Assistant Professor, Sculpture

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
2002 – 2004 – Adjunct Professor, Department of Sculpture
2001 – 2002 – Adjunct Professor, Graduate Ceramics, MIS Program
2002 – 2005 – Adjunct Professor, Department of Craft, Ceramics

I’ve always been interested in how material properties can influence the content of an artwork, from the fine maze of cracks in glazes and paint, the gloss of dried ink, the way liquids react with surfaces. Materials flow through physical processes and reactions while I am working with them. I set notations to those processes through my choice of materials, how and when they interact, and in the form of the patterns and systems I draw. Imposing and breaking order, and allowing chance to disrupt predictability is interesting because knowing the end of every artwork’s transformation would be dull work. Studying the minute and particular nature of my materials, and their properties leads me to see their organizational systems on both a very small and very large scale. The imperfect patterns and systems I draw and paint are those found in nature and in human made materials and surfaces.

Ink droplets evaporate and leave reticulation marks of their own accord and evolve into broken patterns such as those found in fingerprints and crystalline structures. Fractal fields impose a structure on the paths of eclipses, planets, moons and suns, forming a physical link between the known and the unknown, imparting imperfect knowledge accumulated in fragments. Self-portraits flow with the memory of liquid or have the body’s absence described by thousands of tiny staves. These intact and broken systems in the form of inked patterns, single-line labyrinths, fractals and staves create a system for understanding the power of attention.

Working with ink and paper makes me commit to every decision. The relentless forwardness shapes each subsequent mark and decision, no erasures, no going back. Each decision matters, and the placement of each mark or absence of a mark affects the whole composition, just as notes and rests create music.