While the term “multidisciplinary artist” is often bandied about, it proves to be an apt moniker for Clare Rojas, whose curriculum vitae dazzles with a list of solo shows in prestigious galleries and works in the permanent collection of museums including the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But Rojas is not interested in being categorized, as Hilary Burt of Charlotte’s SOCO Gallery, where the artist exhibits, explains: “Metaphorically, her creative practice is the center of a carousel. The characters that revolve around her are like spokes—painting, drawing, narrative, abstraction, figuration, music, film, installation, and writing,” Burt says. “Clare balances all of the mediums within a self-defined construct that embraces the inherent nature of art and the art-making process.”
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Artist Clare Rojas in her studio in northern California.
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New Moon Rise (2013) represents an
Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Photograph by Lance Brewer.
interpretation of light fractured by the moon.
Rojas’s artistic journey began with printmaking at the Rhode Island School of Design, followed by an MFA in painting from the Art Institute of Chicago. “My interdisciplinary practices inform my painting,” she explains. “In printmaking, you are seeing multiples of an image with the capacity for color variations, versus a painting where you are seeing one; that practice of investigating various colorways really influenced my visual language.”
An untitled 2019 work by Clare Rojas represents a goddess communing with nature and birds that are traversing from another realm. “They are abstracted in the other world and become identifiable birds on this side,” she says. “Imagined mythologies make up a big part of my work.”
Courtesy of the artist and SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, NC; Photograph by Chris Edwards-
A stillness pervades Clare Rojas’s paintings.
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The artist’s palette is a reminder of the vibrant earthy hues used in her work.
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Her work struck a particular chord with Barrie Benson, a Charlotte-based interior designer who, along with SOCO Gallery owner Chandra Johnson, founded artist collective Peg Norriss. Together, the two collaborate with visual artists, bringing their work to new audiences through lines of textiles and wallpapers with Schumacher. Benson knew that Rojas’s paintings would be an ideal fit for their collection. “It’s modern and striking, but with a seasoned sensibility,” Benson says. “Clare is hugely contemplative, and that shows up in subtle ways.”
Designer Barrie Benson installed Flying West wallpaper by Clare Rojas & Peg Norriss for Schumacher in the hallway of her Charlotte home.
Brie WilliamsThe idea of a partnership instantly intrigued the artist. “I paint walls in installations, but had never explored doing wallpaper,” she says. The results reveal a spirited collection of designs that highlight folksy figurative and lively geometric motifs. For Rojas, the icing on the cake was seeing how Benson installed the collection in her own home. “All the colors, textures, and how it all comes together is magical,” says the artist. “She made a painting for people to live in.”
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An avid gardener, Rojas often paints interpretations of flowers; this design, Bleeding Hearts, is based on a painting of the same name.
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In her guest room, Benson trimmed curtain panels of Bleeding Hearts fabric in a coordinating red tape and used the wallpaper to cover closet doors.
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Confetti wallpaper and fabric, seen here in Benson’s son’s bedroom, reference a painting from one of Rojas’s earlier abstract bodies of work.
Brie WilliamsShop the Collection
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Bleeding Hearts Fabric In Red by Clare Rojas & Peg Norriss for Schumacher
$147 per yard, chairish.com
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Flying West wallpaper by Clare Rojas & Peg Norriss for Schumacher
$72 per yard, chairish.com
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Confetti Fabric by Clare Rojas & Peg Norriss for Schumacher
$132 per yard, chairish.com
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Forget Me Nots by Clare Rojas & Peg Norriss for Schumacher
$132 per yard, chairish.com
THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN VOLUME 12 OF FREDERIC MAGAZINE. CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE!
