Forget me not
Forget me not
Forget me not is the first solo exhibition in a Dutch museum for the American artist
Clare Rojas (b. Columbus, Ohio, 1976).
Rojas, who lives in San Francisco, California, draws on a wide range of media, such
as painting, graphics, film, installations and quilting, taking gouache and latex on
wood panel as her foundation. In addition to her visual art, Rojas has produced CDs
of original songs with banjo and guitar under the name of Peggy Honeywell.
Her work is strongly influenced by American folk art, especially the materials,
aesthetics and history of quilts, and she embroiders on traditional European fairy
tales and fables. Most of the figures in her paintings are rendered with delicate
brushstrokes against a background of stylized landscapes or monochrome plains. In
exhibitions, Rojas groups a variety of works into large, kaleidoscopic installations
on the walls and in the space, creating manifold connections between them.
With irony and melancholy, Rojas presents a personal vision of relationships between
women and men, people and animals, and between all these living creatures and
nature. Her protagonists are smiling, self-confident women of many ages and colours,
interacting with animals, men or other women in quite outlandish situations. In
contrast, she portrays men’s naked bodies, or parts of them, in poses reminiscent of
female models in fashion magazines. In a cheerful, free-spirited style, Rojas
illustrates sex roles and gender boundaries, without caricaturing them or losing
sight of the subjectification of the female body in art and the mass media.
Museum Het Domein
Kapittelstraat 6 - Sittard Olanda