When R.J. Rosegarten left Great Neck 17 years ago, he was finally free to pursue his childhood ambition of being an artist.
He returns to the Gold Coast Arts Center in Great Neck Plaza — where he once served as mayor — with a show, “Lost & Found: the Art of Assemblage,” that draws upon his sense of design and construction.
The exhibition is on view through March 12.
“Assemblage involves the thoughtful combination of elements to create something new and original,” said Jude Amsel, the curator who installed the exhibit of some 50 works.
Rosegarten saidthe pieces are not intended to hammer home a theme or message. He approaches the work from the point of view of design, color and form, choosing objects that form the image he has conceptualized.
At the end of it, he says, he comes up with a title. “That’s often the most difficult part,” he said.
The titles are for the viewer to find their own meaning.
But if the piece is built around an aesthetic, the title broadcasts a mood, even if was subconsciously in Rosegarten’s mind.
It is human to see patterns which become themes and messages. The design captures your attention, but then your head forms its own patterns and themes.
These aren’t randomly selected objects. Each element is meticulously chosen — sometimes after long searches.
Rosegarten described his effort obtaining just the right red delicious apples for his piece, “Legacy of the Red Apple,” (2016).
He had two heads that he fused into one. Why apples? “In the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Knowledge had fruit.”
Rosegarten can tell you the provenance of each object — where he obtained the silver head in “Sarah Silverstone Presents,” how long it took to find the sunglasses he wanted and how the drawer it is assembled in came from a factory.
“Sarah Silverstone has a twin sister,” he said, explaining that he bought two of the metallic faces. “Sarah represented to me the absolute woman, a sexy woman; her sister is so sexy, every time I pass her, I talk to her, ‘Hope you have a nice day.’”
He has the same personal connection with the “Wizard of Odd” and the “Thought Collector”.
The personal connection is manifest in his work, Dorzi/Dorzi, built around a vinyl record made to look like one by the Bobby Randall 3 band.
Bobby Randall was the non-ethnic name Rosegarten was going to use after college, when was going into advertising, he said. His grandmother discouraged him from changing his name.
There are three hands — for the three band members, in a pose as if they are snapping their fingers to the beat.
His grandmother and grandfather appear again in small photographs that are embedded into a series of four “Junk Drawer” works.
“I visualize what junk drawers have,” he says. “Everyone has junk drawers — in bedrooms, kitchens, desk drawer, basement.”
He chooses the items that fill the drawers independently, lays them out and photographs them.
“Then I take everything out and glue back the items one by one,” he said.
“It’s not nostalgia,” he said.
But looking at the items, it is hard not to become nostalgic as items spark memories of your own past.
The “Junk Drawer” series and his Americana series are like mini-Smithsonians of American cultural icons of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.
Rosegarten, who grew up in Great Neck (he graduated high school with movie director Francis Ford Coppola), now lives in upstate New York, in a house he built 17 years ago.
He has a studio off his bedroom that opens to a deck and pond, and a basement work area.
His collected objects are neatly organized in labeled tubs under tables – machine parts, metal parts, extra toys, mannequin hands.
“Everything has a place, a place for everything,” he said.
Rosegarten’s big regret is that when his family was still living in the Bronx, he was accepted into a music and art school, but before he could attend, his family moved to Great Neck.
“I should have gone …,” he said. “I would have had an art background and the chances are I would have gone to Pratt, School of Visual Arts, or Cooper Union.”
He said his father was not keen on Rosegarten going into advertising, but had he had an art background, he would have been on the creative side, instead of a “suit.”
He did painting until the 1990s. Around 2000, he went to an antique show on Sixth Avenue and came upon wooden patterns used to make metal parts in the early 1900s.
It fit into his overarching philosophy of reuse, repurpose, renewal — “an ability to use things that have been tossed away and have them come back and serve another purpose — Lost and Found (is what I call it). I’m not interested in what is sold in dollar store but things that have age, patina, character.”
Regina Gil, Gold Coast Arts Center’s founder and executive director, writes in her introduction to the catalog that she is “delighted to see … Rosegarten come home to Great Neck.”
“Without his friendship and assistance, mentoring another dreamer through the shoals of politics, fundraising, and community engagement, it is doubtful that this Gold Coast Arts Center could have found its home here,” Gil wrote. “It seems fitting that we honor him with this exhibit that introduces the people he served as mayor to the man he is now — the artist.”
“RJ Rosegarten, Lost & Found: The Art of Assemblage” is on view through March 12 at The Gold Coast Arts Center, 113 Middle Neck Road, Great Neck, 516-829-2570 or www.GoldCoastArts.org.
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