Clare Rojas

Detail, Clare Rojas, Full Moon Meeting at Glowing Tree, 2023, oil on linen, 15 1/8 x 13 1/8 x 7/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

May 2024

Dan Golden speaks with artist Clare Rojas about her inspirations, daily rituals, and a new exhibition at Jessica Silverman in San Francisco.

Hi Clare. Congratulations on your new exhibition, Clare’s Balls. Would you please give me an introduction to the work?

This body of work is about energy and how it’s exchanged, how it’s connected and never really dies; it just infinitely moves around. Thematically, that’s what the balls, orbs, circles, and round black voids symbolize.

You balance figurative work with more minimalist, form-based work. How do you approach these two modes?

By utilizing different modalities and mediums, I’m able to investigate different ways of interpreting one’s feelings.

I sense an artistic connection in your work to artists like Joan Brown, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Joan Miró. What would you say most inspires you? 

The patterns, architecture, sounds, colors, and moodiness of weather found in nature are the most inspiring influences, and, of course, all the above feels applicable to human nature.

Clare Rojas, What Remains, 2024, oil on linen, 41 1/2 x 51 x 2 3/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

This is your third exhibition at Jessica Silverman. How did you two initially connect, and what was it that drew you to work together?

Jessica reached out to me to have a studio visit. She was so engaged and passionate about art, and wanted to show my work. It was a good match and good timing since a lot in my life was shifting.


Paule Anglim was one of the first galleries you showed with. Can you share anything about working with Paule and your experience with her?  

She was truly a San Francisco legend. She wanted her artists to know each other and created space for that. Her annual Holiday party was not to be missed. I think that’s what the grand dames of the art world are very good at. They create a familia like environment for their artists and collectors.

Clare Rojas, Caliente Thunder Light, 2024, oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 41 3/4 x 2 7/8 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

Clare Rojas, Eclipsed, 2023, oil on linen, 21 1/8 x 17 1/8 x 2 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

“By utilizing different modalities, and mediums I’m able to investigate different ways of interpreting one’s feelings.”

Clare Rojas, Night Rocks, 2024, oil on linen, 16 1/8 x 18 1/4 x 1 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

Clare Rojas, Rain at Sea, 2024, oil on linen, 13 1/8 x 15 1/4 x 3/4 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

Clare Rojas, Egg Rock, 2024, oil on linen, 16 1/8 x 18 1/8 x 1 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

What art, music, or literature are you engaging with right now?

Right now, honestly, I’m enjoying nothing but listening to the surround sounds of birds outside. The last few months trying to finish this show felt very noisy to me internally and externally. I need a break from all of it. During the last stretch of my painting marathon I listened to Ween on repeat. I’ve been a fan since 1999. It was nice to revisit that youthful irreverent part of myself with the rebellious nature of getting older and wiser.

Can you walk me through a typical day for you in the studio?

I “wake” up from not really sleeping around 5 am. Let my dog out, feed my dog, put on my cleanest dirty clothes from my clothes chair, drink coffee and water all day, take the exact same 45 minute loop walk outside before the sun sets, feed my dog again, (are you bored yet? LOL) and then eat the same dinner every night, tomato basil pasta, around 10, take a five minute shower, brush my teeth, go to bed and “wake” up and do it all over again the next day. It’s not romantic at all. When I am working on a body of work it’s all consuming and I have to temporarily say goodbye to friends and family. I work hard and rest hard. I’m in rest mode now, which involves an enormous amount of time in my garden and at the nursery, seeing friends and family, and cooking.

What do you have coming up next?

A survey exhibition with the Bechtler Museum is opening late September in parallel with a grouping of miniature floral paintings at SOCO.

Installation view, Clare Rojas, Clare’s Balls, April 25—June 1, 2024, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco. Photo by Phillip Maisel

“This body of work is about energy, and how it’s exchanged, how it’s connected and never really dies; it just infinitely moves around.”

Clare Rojas
Clare’s Balls
Jessica Silverman
San Francisco
April 25—June 1, 2024

Clare Rojas
@clarerojasart

Jessica Silverman
@jessicasilvermangallery

Portrait of Clare Rojas at the opening of her exhibition, Clare’s Balls at Jessica Silverman, San Francisco

Clare Rojas (b. 1976, Columbus, OH) is in the permanent collections of MoMA New York; SFMOMA; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; Orange County Museum of Art, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Berkeley Art Museum, CA; Smart Museum, University of Chicago; Columbus Museum of Art, OH; Progressive Art Collection, Cleveland; Dakis Joannou Collection, Greece; and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain. She has been awarded grants and residencies from Artadia, Eureka Fellowship, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. In 2024, Rojas will be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, North Carolina. She has enjoyed previous solo exhibitions at MCA Chicago; IKON Gallery, England; Museum Het Domein, Netherlands; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, MA; Savannah College of Art and Design, GA; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS; Knoxville Museum of Art, TN; Belkin Satellite, Vancouver; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco. She has a BFA in printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rojas lives and works in Northern California and is represented by Jessica Silverman, San Francisco; Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York; and SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, North Carolina.