Clare Rojas: Re-Discovered

These exceptional, recently re-discovered works by Clare Rojas were exhibited only once, eight years ago. They represent an extraordinary glimpse into a crucial moment in the development of her talent.

In the early 2010s, after taking a break from painting to refocus the intentions of her practice, Rojas entered a period of fruitful experimentation that culminated in her transition from folk-inspired figuration to abstraction. This period resulted in the creation of the stunning body of abstract paintings documented in her monograph Plain Black: Abstract Paintings by Clare Rojas.

Timeless and whimsical, the Plain Black paintings mark the formative stage of Rojas's shift towards plasticity as content: an evolution in style that saw her flat, colorful, abstract forms take on an almost narrative emotional presence. They signify a groundbreaking time when Rojas first mapped the liminal space between geometric and biomorphic abstraction, defining the distinctive visual language she employs today.

All but a handful of the works documented in Plain Black have already been placed in private or institutional collections. The revelation of nine paintings and two ink drawings from this period—unexhibited and unavailable since their debut in a 2013 solo exhibition at a New York pop-up gallery—was as surprising as it was thrilling.

After the opening of that exhibition—held in an elegant, refurbished townhouse on the Upper East Side, half a block from Central Park—one reviewer wrote: “[Rojas’] contemporary abstract art was stunning against the white walls, crown moldings and antique fixtures.” Had they grasped the importance of the works in addition to their beauty, they could have made the investment of a lifetime.

We are thrilled to be able to offer you this rare chance to consider these major works from an essential period of experimentation in the career of an influential artist who is still on the rise.

Plain Black: Abstract Paintings by Clare Rojas

Published by Kavi Gupta, 2016, clothbound hardcover, 208 pages, 12 x 11 inches.

This volume surveys the abstractions of much-admired San Francisco painter Clare Rojas (b. 1976).

Known for her association with a generation of artists that became internationally prominent through the exhibition Beautiful Losers, Rojas in her earlier paintings drew from various Russian and Eastern European folkloric subjects. While the figures have been removed from this body of work featured here, it is not hard to see their enduring impact on Rojas' art; with their lively angularity and bold chromaticism, these paintings are equally evocative of folk art and the formalist reductions of key modernist abstract artists, such as Alexander Calder, Matisse, Malevich, and Ellsworth Kelly.

Accompanying the works are an essay by curator and Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum Jens Hoffmann and a poem by David Whyte.

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