Alana Roth
Issue No. 21 • Spring 2020
Red Rikers in Fine Weather
"The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference." - Ellie Wiesel
Combination Toilet, Suicide Resistant
"If I ruled the world -imagine that- I'd free all my sons. I love em love em baby." - Nas (and Lauryn Hill)
Born and raised in Maryland, the New York-based artist Alana Roth has lived in Central America, Mexico and four out of five boroughs. Roth has been drawing for her entire life, but chose not to attend art school. She has studied drawing at New York Studio School, Art Students’ League and New York Academy of Art. Roth’s work embodies her belief in the supremacy of drawing. All works in the Public Pretender serio are on paper. The media includes charcoal, conte, chalk and ink, as well on gesso and oil on digital prints. Even her more sculptural work can be thought of as mixed media drawings, in that they focus on line and mark-making and representation on paper. She takes inspiration from many places. In Public Pretender she draws on her work as a public defender at The Legal Aid Society, where she provides legal representation to people accused of crimes, currently in Manhattan and previously in the Bronx.