The Mississippi State University Department of Art Galleries is pleased to present Overuse and Recharge by artist Steve Rossi in the Visual Arts Center Gallery, 808 University Dr., from September 26 through November 2, 2024. 

Rossi is a socially engaged, interdisciplinary artist who works in installation, painting and sculpture. He earned his BFA from the Pratt Institute and his MFA from SUNY (State University New York) at New Paltz. He is now an assistant professor and sculpture program head at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Overuse and Recharge will explore the human use of land and how that use has turned into exploitation and will eventually deplete the resources before they can naturally recharge.  

The artist will visit Mississippi State University Sept. 25-27, with a public reception at the VAC Gallery from 5-6 p.m. 

The Visual Arts Center Gallery is open Monday through Friday 1-6 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. on Saturday. 

For more information, please contact Gallery Director Dixie Boswell at dboswell@caad.msstate.edu

About the artist: 

Born into a family of makers, Rossi developed an intense appreciation and respect for artistic craft and physical labor through growing up around family members making quilts, knitting blankets, repairing houses and arranging flowers. He received his BFA from Pratt Institute and his MFA from the State University of New York at New Paltz. His work has been exhibited at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, Jules Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts, Hudson Valley MOCA, Francis M. Maguire Museum of Art, John Michael Kohler Art Center, the Wassaic Project, and the public art festival Art in Odd Places, among many others. He has participated in artist residencies with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Vermont Studio Center, and was awarded the Sustainable Arts Foundation fellowship at Gallery Aferro. As a part-time faculty member, he has taught in the first-year program at Parsons School of Design, the sculpture program and Art Education Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and in the Art Department at Westchester Community College. He is currently an assistant professor and sculpture program head at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.