Directly descended from the last pirate publicly hung in Charleston, South Carolina, legendary scourge of the seas Earl Hugh Rose, Michael X. Rose's known history dates from December 12, 1975, when the wretched child, perhaps four years of age, was found abandoned on the streets of Amsterdam, Holland. He was rescued by a Belgian order of Dominican nuns and taken to an orphanage outside of Brussels. Active discouragement from all pleasurable habits and the repeated, prolonged physical abuse at the hands of older, stronger, boys finally caused the Sisters to seek placement of young Rose elsewhere. 

 As a wayward teen in Brussels, he learned to live off the streets and his wits. He spent his days inside the great museums, and could be seen always drawing from the Old Masters, especially Rubens. A patron assisted him in travelling to America to attend art school at Pratt Institute in NYC. Upon entry to the country American Consular officials told him of his birthright, the Rose ancestral plantation outside of Georgetown, South Carolina. Abandoned for many decades, Rose quickly decided to forsake the crumbling plantation house with its terrible ghosts and debauched past. Fleeing, he set the rotten hulk ablaze. From the glowing embers of this destruction Rose fled northward once again and eventually established residency in Bruynswick, Ulster Co., N.Y. where, from 2000 through Winter of 2017/18, he maintained an art studio in a 17th century farmhouse with his wife Kristina and their eight children, most of whom were adopted during repeated voyages to the Far East.

 Since 2001, Rose has eked his living exclusively from his artwork; painting, drawing, bookmaking, and occasional tattooing. When last seen on March 19, 2019 he was known to be researching occult phenomena in a vermin infested stone tower on the Bruynswick property. He hasn't been seen by human eyes from that time. Cult activity is widespread in the area. A local police investigation remains open. At this time, authorities are awaiting lab results of a hideous ectoplasm that was found at the scene.  

Artist Statement

I seek to discover that pivotal moment in human events when there is no turning back; disaster or salvation is imminent. The scene is a finely balanced fulcrum about to tip; the viewer can speculate on the outcome. Romantic influences combined with a realization that in the greatest Shakespearean works all the main characters end up dead, to me, are the ingredients of a great painting.

My visual imagination is fed by Gothic Horror novels and Italian Horror movies of the 60’s and 70’s by Mario Bava and Hammer Films. The five key elements to any Gothic Horror Novel are Murder, Incest, a Ghost, and an Evil Monk (priest, or nun), and a Castle. The best of these is The Monk by Matthew Lewis 

Conceptually my ambition in the studio is to easel paint like an Old Master, using oils in the traditional sense. Over canvas hand- stretched with copper tacks rabbit skin glue sizing is applied, then three coats of oil priming sanded smooth between each layer. The surface is finished with two coats of black oil ground. Opaque colors begin the concretion of the conceptual dream and dozens of layers of oil glazing complete the illusion within a glowing, visually deep surface. Utilizing pure pigments alone to create images leaves maximum conceptual and formal room for the artist to seduce his prey, the audience. The appearance of the familiar, comfortable surface is the most successful device for letting people draw close, inspect the artwork for aesthetic pleasure, and finally be horrified, disgusted, raptured, or enthralled at the macabre manifestation presented. 

The infamous author of the supernatural H.P. Lovecraft tells of an artist whose paintings are the embodiment of the hideous and grotesque. Strange rites and rituals performed by hyperborean humanoids and antediluvian amphibian-like gods fill scores of canvases.Am I that artist and have found that doorway to those unnamable places? Epiphany is the goal, reflection on the eternal. Metaphysical psychic transformation through sublime visual terror and surprise. 

Post-Contemporary Art:

Where Tomorrow becomes Today as it Turns into the Past

A Manifesto

I. The Problem

  Contemporary Art has runs its course and now adds to the ennui of Modern Life. Made from the detritus of society with such banal objects as nylon stockings, rusted auto parts, dismembered laundry baskets, crushed beer cans, discarded packaging, and a thousand various plastic products mainly made by Chinese slave labor, these plastic products contain no inherent aesthetic value and merely changing their context by placing them in an art gallery does not make them worthwhile in the sense of which we are dealing- the aesthetic. The Contemporary Artworker, for that is how they self label, is limited by the nature of their artistic endeavors to only commenting on and reacting to society- using offal re-organized into anti-aesthetic polemical diatribes. Nausea ensues. The suicide of the soul. 

II. The Solution

  The Post Contemporary artist radically breaks with this dead academic tradition, Contemporary Art. Art is created new, fresh and solely with the pure fruits of the artists own labor. The artist now insists on creating new visual images in the most dramatically conceptual technique, from scratch; fashioning them out of colors alone.  Using only Light and Dark, hues and glazing, ground pigments suspended in an emulsion, the artist magically creates illusions that are true Art- neither Nature or Realistic representations of it, nor literal concrete objects plucked from the material environment. Realism, as an end, is to be rejected as much as Materialism. We seek the sublime moment, that in which philosophical transformation through terror and awe occur. 

III. The Sublime Goal

 Our subject matter is Romantic and Sublime; that which we cannot posses and which may even destroy us. Overwhelming natural forces assemble in stupefying combinations. Beauty, when placed under the pall of theses forces heightens the tension to volcanic proportions. Tsunamis of unnamable awe threaten the most vital beauty found in existence- the human body. The Crown of Creation, muse for eons, the human form contains all our aesthetic and philosophical ideals- happiness, hope, desire, love and ultimately loss, despair, and decay. The forces of Chaos eternally assail this perfectly ordered manifestation- Man. Whether dark beasts and animals of primeval and unknown origin or ultra-violent maelstroms this eternal cosmic battle is our muse. 

Solo exhibition in front gallery Global Warning.

·  2015 June  Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz, Hudson Valley Artists 2015. Stories We Tell.

·  2015 March Muroff Kotler Gallery, SUNY Ulster. Altarpiece included in Peace and    Justice, curated by Elisa Pritzker. 

·  2015 Feb.    Artists for Art Gallery, 514 Lackawanna Ave., Scranton, PA. Two Person

   Exhibition with Daisy Berkowitz of Marilyn Manson Fame.  

·  2014 Oct.   Cologne Art Fair. Cologne Germany. Represented by Burkhard Eikelmann Galerie

   Group exhibit including Tom Wesselmann, Andy Warhol, and Greg Harberny

·  2014 Sept.  Burkhard Eikelmann Galerie. Dominikanerstrasse 11, Dusseldorf, Germany

   12 pieces included in The Great American Summer Show.

·  2014 Sept.   Newburgh Opens Studios. Solo Exhibition at Gallery@Newburgh Art Supply

   Newburgh , NY 

§  2013 Jan  KMOCA, 103 Abeel St., Kingston NY 12401. 3 person Exhibition: The Rose of Western   Civilization   Part of  The Rose, The Thorn and The Dark Ryder.

§  2012 Summer  Dorsky Museum, SUNY New Paltz. Hudson Valley Artists 2012. Dear Mother Nature.

§  2012 June   One Mile Gallery. 475 Abeel St. Kingston , NY 12401. “Rara Avis” Exhibition. 

§  2012 March    SUNY Ulster, “Water” Group show @Muroff Kotler Gallery. Curator Portis Munson

§  2012, March   Fountain Art Fair , NYC. The 69th Regiment Armory, Lexington Ave. Second Invitation. 

§  2011 Dec.    KMOCA. Group Show. Exhibits “Massacre of the Innocents.” 

§  2011, Sept.  Lovebird Studios. 403 Main St., Rosendale, NY 12472. Solo exhibition.

§  2011, Aug   G-Spot Gallery. 199 Green St., Greenpoint , Brooklyn, 11211. Solo exhibition.

·  2011, March  Fountain Art Fair. Exhibition presented by G-Spot Gallery at Armory Week Show @ Pier 66.

§  2011 Feb    WaterStreetMartket Gallery. 10 Main Street, New Paltz , NY 12561.The Martyrdom of

  St.Valentine included in Group Show.

·  2010, June    Dirt Floor Gallery. 56 Church St., Beacon, NY 12508. The Beast Within. 3 person show.

  Curated by Marsha Aliaga, Stephen Dickens, and Greg Slick.

·  2010, Jan.    KMOCA. 103 Abeel St., Kingston , NY 12401. Solo Show The Crown of Creation.

·  2009, July    gallery506. 506 Main St., Beacon, NY 12506. Participates in group show of 8.

  Sept.    Arrested for exhibiting art against the public morality. 

·  2009,June    McCaig-Welles Gallery. 129 Roebling St., Brooklyn , NY 11211. 3 pieces included

   in group show. 

·  2009, April    G.A.S. Gallery. 196 Main St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. Group Show titled Ten.

   Exhibits 4 paintings thematically organized around the supernatural miracles of Christ.

   The artist is arrested and executed via guillotine by communist youth brigades.

·  2009, Jan.  McCaig-Welles Gallery. 129 Roebling St., Brooklyn , NY 11211. 2 pieces in Group

group show titled All That Glitters Is Gold., Osiris vs. Killer Robots & Anubis and Osiris

   vs. Killer Robot Brains. 

·  2008, Oct.  Barret Art Center. 55 Noxon Rd., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. 2 Pieces, Bathers Beset by    Ammonites and Trilobites and The Sea-Dragon included in New Directions ’08.

·  2008, July  GoNorth Gallery. 469 Main St., Beacon , NY 12508. Solo Exhibition titled

Resurrection Insurrection or Son of Morpheus. July 12- August3, 2008.

·  2008, July  G.A.S. Gallery. 196 Main St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. Solo Exhibition

titled Posthumous Eruptum. July 19- August 10, 2008.

·  2007, Oct.  Varga Gallery, 130 Tinker St., Woodstock  NY.

Solo Exhibition Ghosts of the Hudson Valley.  October 18th- 31st, 2007.

·  2007, Fall  Barrett Art Center. 55 Noxon Rd., Poughkeepsie,  NY 12601.

Ghost in the Motorway featured in New Directions '07. Juror Jose Luis Blondet, Dia Foundation.

·  2007,  Jan.    Varga Gallery, Woodstock, NY. 3 works selected for Group Show: "Exhibit A"

·  2006, Summer  CCCA Gallery, Hudson, NY. Summer show entitled “Wild.”  2 works chosen by Jury.

·  2006 March    PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, The Armory,  NYC. sixtyseven gallery presents 6 works at    International Contemporary Art Fair PULSE .  

·  2006 March  Columbia County Council on the Arts (CCCA) 2006 Annual Juried Show. Hudson 

Opera House, Hudson, NY. Three works selected including Osiris Vs. the Killer Robots and 

The Resurrection of the Pharaoh..

•  2005 Nov.  Historic Albany Foundation, Fourth Annual VACANCY, Albany's Abandoned Buildings Through Artists' Eyes. Two works selected including The Attack on the Third Precinct.

•  2005 July-  sixtysevengallery. 547 W27th St. , 3rd Fl., NY, NY 10001 www.sixtysevengallery.com

  Sept.    3 Works featured in exhibition dedicated to Bigfoot entitled Sasquatch Society.

•  2005 May  The Varga Gallery. 130 Tinker St., Woodstock, NY. Performance featuring

   chopping off of wax hand by axe and spontaneous self-explosion. May 28. 

•  2004 June-  The Barrett Art Center. 55 Noxon St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

  July     2 works selected for New York Painters '04 Statewide Juried Painters Exhibition.

•  2002 Dec.  Scoharie County Arts Gallery Arts Council. 

  54 Main St., Cobleskill, NY 12043

  Second Annual Regional Show. First Place Winner, The Robot Brain vs. Hitler's Corpse.

•  1999,  Fall  First Place Winner, Brooklyn Brewery's "Art of  Fine Beer II,"      Best art on back of a beer coaster. A triptych in oil of the great moments in beer history,     beginning with Bacchus' invention of mead in 750 B.C. and ending in 1967 with "The       Summer of Beer and Love." Curator Charlotta Kotik, Brooklyn Museum of Art; Joe     Amrhein, Pierogi 2000; and Bruce Ferguson, Columbia University.  

Brooklyn Brewery, 79 N 11th St., Brooklyn, NY 11211

Questions?