Alexandra Rutsch Brock
My Story
Alexandra Rutsch Brock is an artist, independent curator and educator.
I was born to two artists - Katherine Stolow and Alexander Rutsch. My mother was the rebel artist who was brought up in a business home of philatelists, but she ventured off and went to School of Visual Arts in NYC. She then met and married my father, who was twenty-five years her senior. In 1968, they left their European Bohemian life and moved to her hometown of Pelham, NY to raise their family. Their suburban settling did not lead to a cookie cutter pattern card of childrearing. I grew up in Westchester County, NY in an ever evolving home full of murals on the walls, homemade furniture, and my parents perpetually painting and creating. My sister Viki and I were eleven and a half months apart, and my sister Nina was born seven years later. The 1970s were a fun, carefree time to be a child-riding bikes with no helmets, having the freedom to leave your house and explore as long as you were home before dark.
My father had his studio in the house and was always painting, doing portraits of people, hammering found wood sculptures, and using a local body shop for his metal welding. My sisters and I had a "playroom" off the kitchen. Here we had a rug and pillows to lay on to read, drawers filled for dress up and art supplies. Unbeknownst to me then, my parents were laying the groundwork of creative freedom, studio time, mentorship, and curation that is an endemic part of my personality. Despite the vicissitudes of my life, these things have been constants. We were allowed to draw and paint on the walls - my mother would paint over it monthly. My father built us a wood playhouse in the yard with two swinging doors and a built-in table and chairs inside. We would paint in and outside of it with the tempera paint that came in a plastic strip. The rain would wash it off - and we would start anew.
I took many art classes at a local space when I was young. Along with many volunteers, my parents were integral in getting the Pelham Art Center into a permanent building in 1980. There I continued taking classes, teaching and volunteering, and curating my first exhibition "Young Professionals" in 1989. This started a lifelong passion of organizing and curating exhibitions and to date, I have curated over seventy shows.
I was viewed by adults and peers as the "artist" in elementary school and that identity followed me to high school. I took Saturday Life Drawing classes at FIT, and loved the gritty commute via subway into NYC. This landscape and the various experiences engendered through that simple activity expanded my experiences and my artist eye. I completed the only two art classes my high school offered, and then went to BOCES, a vocational program, for a half day during my junior and senior years. It was there that I encountered the first person whom I would consciously label as a mentor, my teacher was the artist, Bernard Boffi. Like my mother, he was an SVA alum, so there was never a doubt where I wanted to go as well. I commuted to SVA from 1987-1991 - double majoring in Fine Art and Art Education. This is where I met NYSWA President, Natalie Giugni,and have been friends ever since. I had incredible memorable teachers there including - Nachume Miller, Juan Gonzalez, Marilyn Minter, Hannah Wilke, Michael Goldberg and Jane Rosen. I took painting, printmaking and sculpture classes. I was not married to any single mode of expression. I wanted to learn as much as I could, and I have maintained an active studio practice incorporating all three focuses.
After I graduated SVA in May 1991,I ended up getting a job teaching at New Rochelle High School and have been there ever since. I began my Masters at the College of New Rochelle the following January and studied with Beverly Fishman. For eight years, I continued taking additional printmaking courses at CNR with Bruce Waldman. I have been very lucky to have been mentored by so many generous, kind, wonderful artists. Their passion, enthusiasm and support is something that I try to continue through my teaching and curation. I have always maintained a home studio and have exhibited my work nationally, and have curated in venues in NYC and surrounding areas.
My husband and I settled into New Rochelle, the location where I teach, and for fifteen years, raised our son Max there until we moved to Stamford, CT. Despite New Rochelle no longer being my hometown, my commitment to the city’s art programs has my whole heart. Along with my colleague and fellow artist, Scott Seaboldt, we started a Visiting Artists program, and for over twenty-five years, we have had artists in all medi- curators, writers, poets and working alumni, come back and speak to the students on what it is like to be an artist and have a creative life. I am also currently the Director of the Museum of Arts & Culture. We are the only high school with a Regents-chartered museum in a school in the State of New York. In 2026, I plan to retire from NRHS after 35 years of service, and I look forward to a full time studio practice.
Alexandra (Alexi) Rutsch Brock