ARTIST CLARE ROJAS TALKS ABSTRACTION, ART MARKET GOSSIP AND LOUIE C.K.

Priscilla Frank, Huffington Post, November 15, 2013

In her paintings, Clare Rojas lets geometric narratives unfold between colors and shapes. Drifting, colliding, coexisting and communicating, Rojas’ sharp-edged forms build tension and character with their paths, while remaining fully alien and abstract.

 

Rojas’ color fields are a dramatic change from her previous exhibition, a series of flattened folk paintings with scrambled gender roles and fairy tale antics. Now the Bay Area artist has stripped away all references to man and beast, focusing instead on the piercing vibrations that occur when red meets blue. As if taking a magnifying glass to her narrative tales, Rojas captures the drama and excitement of a more primal interaction.

Rojas’ ripe visual geometries are heading to the Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld in New York and in anticipation of the exhibition, we reached out to Rojas to learn more.

 

What in your opinion is an advantage of working in abstraction over concrete forms?

 

I was once told the only way to get out of your head is to get into your body. I do this by running for example. Feeling my breath, my heart beat, my feet pound. That’s how I feel about abstract work. It’s instinctual. A way of seeing that is more about feeling than over intellectualizing.

 

If you could trade skills or brains with one other artist alive or dead who would you choose?

 

Louie C.K.

 

What is the most off-base statement you’ve heard or read about your work?

 

There have been so many. But the funniest is that my work is like graffiti. I’ve never done graffiti in my life!

The most annoying thing about the art world is?

 

Honestly the most challenging aspect of the art world for me is the idle gossip. This world becomes very small very fast.

What are your favorite things to snack on while working?

 

Cherry Gatorade and almonds.

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