Clare Rojas – The Inexhaustible Middle

Referencing West Coast modernism, Quaker art, Native American textiles, Byzantine mosaics, and Outsider art, Rojas tells stories through painting, installations, and video. Often her narratives concern relationships between the sexes and among humans and animals, in their struggle to find harmony and balance. Many works quietly celebrate the traditional strengths of women, depicting them like Russian nesting dolls in conventional roles without critical undertones or hints of sexual exploitation. Quilt-like patterns in vivid colours accentuate the folk art-inspired scenes present in some works, while simple geometric forms and stark interiors evoke Bauhaus design in others. Recently, Rojas has focused her attention on the abstract shapes formed by architecture and shadow that dominate interior spaces, producing colorful, precise, abstract compositions on stretched linen.