Virginia has created and built:
art, sculpture, decks, roofs and patios, landscapes, lamps, websites and a fantastic home environment. She also has a left brain.
has been employed as:
an archivist/curator of images for a university teaching collection and for an arts publication archive, an administrative assistant for a documentary film project and for an art conservator, a gardener on a private estate and a heating contractor’s helper
about:
Probasco Haus Press
copyright © 2009, 2012 Probasco Haus Press LLC
Probasco Haus Press
Virginia Restemeyer
Publishing/writing/Research
•Websites: 2009/2012
probascohauspress.com
•Hip and Hidden Philadelphia: The unexpected house in a city of tradition (Probasco Haus Press, 2012).
• Something poster, Probasco Haus Press, 2007.
•Fairview Cottage, 250 Lyceum Avenue, Manayunk for the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, 1999.
• Landscape Art: The Work of Martha Schwartz, 1998.
• The Gorge of the Schuylkill River: Flat Rock to the Falls, A Cultural Landscape, 1997.
• The Questions of Art, MFA Thesis, 1986.
Selected education/experience
• Publisher, writer, designer, Probasco Haus Press, 2005-present.
• Image Library Manager/Visual Resources Curator, Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA, 1999-2006.
• Summer Educational Institute for Visual Resources & Image Management, Duke University, Durham, NC, 2005.
• Landscape Architecture program, Temple University, Ambler, PA, 1997-98.
• Full time working Artist, Philadelphia, PA, 1986-1994.
• Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship Recipient, 1992.
• M.F.A., Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1986.
•Teaching Assistant, Sculpture Department, Cedar Crest College, Allentown, PA, 1983-84.
• Assistant, Conservation Department, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1981-82.
• B.F.A., College of Mount Saint Joseph, Cincinnati, OH, 1979
art background
Sculpture is in the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York;
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ; and in private collections.
Selected exhibitions
• Biennial Faculty Exhibition, The Design Center at Philadelphia University, Philadelphia, PA, 2004
• Artfront Partnership, City Storefront Windows Project, Philadelphia, PA, 1994-95.
• New Acquisitions, Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York City, 1992.
• Modern Myth, Materia Gallery, Doylestown, PA, 1992.
• Three Rivers Arts Festival: Juried Visual Arts Exhibition, Pittsburgh, PA, 1991.
• Light: A Sculptural Approach, Archon Gallery, New York City, 1991.
• Fantasy & Humor Show: Funny Furniture, Rosenfeld Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 1990.
• Window on South Street, Works Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, 1990.
• Fanciful/Functional, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, 1989.
• Voices of Dissent, Painted Bride Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA, 1987.
• New Visions of Family: A National Juried Exhibition, Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA, 1986.
• Group Exhibition, Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, 1986.
• Women’s Caucus for Art National Juried Exhibition, Lehigh University Art Galleries, Bethlehem, PA, 1984.
Selected Articles/Reviews
• “Dressing Up Center City’s Windows,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 14, 1994.
• “Space Invaders: Windows of Oppotunity,” City Paper, July 22-29, 1994.
• “Winners: Art Shows Alfresco: In Store Windows,” The Philadelphia Inquirer, July 22, 1994.
• “Artisans in the Mainstream,” Colonial Homes’ Stylewatch, Spring 1992.
• “Cast-Off Convertibles,” New York Newsday, September 6, 1991.
• “Transformations of the Obvious,” Metropolis, June 1991.
• “How Discarded Relics Can Light Up the Night,” The New York Times, February 14, 1991.
• “Fixtures of the Community,” New York Newsday, January 24, 1991.
• “Lamps That Make Statements,” The New York Times, March 15, 1990.
• “In a New Light,” Philadelphia Magazine, April, 1990.
• “News,” Lighting Dimensions, May/June, 1990.
Virginia’s previous writings involve historical research and are unpublished:
The Gorge of the Schuylkill River: Flat Rock to the Falls – A Cultural Landscape.
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Landscape Art: The Work of Martha Schwartz.
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Fairview Cottage, 250 Lyceum Avenue, Manayunk. for the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places (granted historic designation by the Historical Commission in 1999).
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Bio
Just because Virginia is related to Ginger Rogers doesn’t mean that she, like her namesake, dances backwards and in high heels. Why should she? In all things, she’s the one who naturally leads. Whether writing, designing books and web pages, making art or installing furnaces, she is a tireless force of nature, always moving forward, heel-lessly.
As her parental models were polar-opposite unique individuals, Virginia’s interests are distinctly divided to reflect that dichotomy: on the one hand, free-spirited, creative, iconoclastic; on the other, detailed, systematic, even algorithmic. Not always an easy road to follow, let alone cross. But somehow she is able to effect a truce between these two seemingly antithetical sides, and what results is not peace but the kind of contained tension that breeds innovation and makes a difference.
For Virginia the point of life is to engage her fertile imagination, and hope that the results connect with like-spirited appreciators. As with her famous relative, it’s all about the dance … and the right partner.