Over the past twenty years, Clare Rojas has developed a multifaceted art practice that draws on a wide range of inspirations, from ecofeminism to diverse literary and musical sources, the folklore of her Peruvian ancestry, the crisp formalism of 20th-century abstraction, and the fantastical spirit of Surrealism, which she has shaped into her own unique visual vocabulary. Clare Rojas: Past the Present features nearly 100 examples of the artist’s work from the past five years, including large-scale and intimate paintings, bronze sculptures, works on paper, and an installation of wallpaper designed in collaboration with Schumacher x Peg Norriss. While Rojas has veered between abstraction and magical realist figuration throughout her career, the compelling recent work included in this exhibition deftly conjoins these modes of artmaking in compositions that center female empowerment and that marry an exploration of the legacies—and lacunae—of modernism with contemporary experience, confronting issues surrounding representation, the fragile state of the environment, and the patterns of everyday life.
The exhibition launches the Bechtler Museum’s 15th anniversary celebration, and with it, a year of exhibitions and programs dedicated to important female artists of the modern and contemporary periods.