Veronica Rojas

Artist Statement:

A central theme for the series of paintings that I am submitting is the relationship between humans and nature, whether this relationship is harmonious, controlling, abusive, symbiotic or conflictive.

My paintings can be perceived as stories that take place in dream like environments where insects, plants, hands, organs and cells become the main characters. These characters are forced to go through a journey where they have to struggle to communicate, to relate to each other and to their environment.

There is a narrative quality to my work, inspired by the pictoric narrative tradition of the pre-Hispanic manuscripts or codex.

My most recent series is inspired by my last trip to Mexico City where I found a society in crisis due to violent conflicts related to the drug wars.

In most of my paintings I use amate paper, a bark paper that was used by Meso-American cultures to create manuscripts. I like to combine the ancient qualities of amate paper with modern materials and techniques, such as acrylic and photo transfers.

Veronica Rojas was born in Mexico City in 1973. She was born into a multi-cultural family; her father is Mexican and her mother Swedish.

In 1995 she came to San Francisco, USA, to get a BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and later a MFA at the California College of the Arts. She currently lives in Berkeley, California. Veronica has shown her work nationally and internationally. Galleries that have represented Veronicas’ work include SFMOMA Artists Gallery and Bay Area Visual Artists Network. She is also a Visual Aid Grant recipient and has been nominated to The Eureka Fellowship Grant and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant. In 2011 Veronica got the Jerome Caja Terrible Beauty Award. Veronicas’ paintings have been reviewed in Artweek Magazine, Bay Area Express and Latin Eyes.