EMERALD CITY

Emerald City
ARTRUSS Gallery
Chicago, IL
November 10, 2023 - January 28, 2024

In Emerald City, Marina Ross presents a series of oil paintings that explore the connections between loss, home and belonging. Ross began mining the iconic American fairytale The Wizard of Oz (1939) in the summer of 2022, after the tragic loss of her son, as an index to cultural and personal memory. Witnessing the rise and fall of beloved performers from her youth, Ross initially investigated the impact of trauma on young, female performers such as Brittany Murphy, Britney Spears and Judy Garland. The current work takes a closer look at the impact of The Wizard of Oz on Judy Garland’s later life and as a reflection of the film’s icons such as the farmhouse, the Emerald City, and the poppies, in addition to the nature of the iconic film itself. The works in the exhibition are connected through the teal color of patination found on architectural domes and through college campuses. This color occurs naturally when metals are exposed to oxygen over an extended period of time but can also be achieved artificially through chemical alteration to achieve the highly sought after beauty of old age. The focus on architecture in the exhibition reflects the permanence, legacy, and transcendence of ubiquitous icons in our cultural history.