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Born in 1962 in Caracas, Venezuela


1987, Graduate Certificate in the Fine Arts, University of California, Santa Cruz

1984, B.A. in Art History and German, Bowdoin College

1983, German Studies, Freiburg University




Statement for Robots and Toys:

"Robots, toys and dolls" are souvenirs of a simpler time in our lives and this series of paintings serves as a window through which we reminisce. The images often recall toys of the 1950s and 60s, an era when the onset of the Space Race and the rise of technology mesmerized Americans with possibilities as infinite as the galaxy we endeavored to conquer. Colorful recollections of childhood and of history, while painted in our memory as happy and playful, mask emotions of fear and uncertainty that inevitably accompany the loss of innocence."

Statement for Small Interiors:

"My series of paintings "Interiors" are small gouache on wood portraits of intimate spaces: living rooms, dinning rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, porches and hotel lobbies. These places are, for the most part, personal: my grandmother's 19th century farmhouse, my aunt's Manhattan apartment, my parents' house in Venezuela, my bedroom at The Judge's Court hotel in Pragpur, India. Although the paintings convey actual places, they are not faithful re-creations. I liberally re-interpret each space, using specific details, patterns, shapes and colors to suit my personal vision and experience. Each painting in "Interiors" has a specific character, humor, sensibility, order, and personal esthetic based on the people who inhabit and furnish the featured room, thereby lending the scene a narrative quality. These are quiet spaces, devoid of people, yet evocative and teeming with life. The paintings are deliberately very small (5" x 7"), inviting an observer to "enter" the room through a porthole-like perspective where seemingly recognizable, perhaps even ordinary and everyday places, are seen in a new light."

Statement for Renaissance Portraits:

"In this series, well-documented Renaissance paintings have become a vehicle for an exercise in "new" figurative art. The sitter's face has been placed with my vision of the sitter's ambitions, obsessions, guilt, dreams or desires. These "new" paintings become dreamlike and fantastical: allegories of every day mental states and emotions. These portraits both transcend and capture a moment in time."

Statement for Interiors with Animal Paintings:

"My aim is to create a piece where the familiar becomes unfamiliar, and the everyday becomes dreamlike. I recycle images and appropriate them into a work that fits my personal vision. In each painting, a story is woven together by assembling disparate images, which by themselves have a certain association and exist in a certain 'world,' but that placed together, form a vocabulary unique to the painting created. I often use animals as a form of comic relief and as metaphors to illustrate and comment on aspects of the human condition. Unexpected changes in scale, while sometimes subtle, also help create a surreal feeling to what at first glance could appear like an image of reality. It is in this tension that my work exists."

Statement for Self-Portraits in Costume.

"I use costume and role playing in self-potrait painting to probe different facets of my psyche. My paintings address questions of exposure, concealment, and inhibition. The self-portrait aspect of the paintings probe and expose the self, while the theatrical props allow me to take on new identities through private (in the studio) and public role playing (in the paintings). These portraits are more than paintings of myself. They challenge perceptions of beauty, sensuality and desire."

Roxa Smith, October 2003


  • Solo Exhibitions
  • 2005:
  • George Billis Gallery, Los Angeles, LA, "New Interiors"
  • PaintingsDIRECT.com, "Best Seller Artist"
  • 2004: George Billis Gallery, New York, NY, "Mindscapes"

  • 2002:
  • George Billis Gallery, New York, NY, "Interiors"
  • Rosehulman Gallery, Rosehulman Institue of Technology, Terrahute, IN, "Inner Thoughts"
  • 2001: Azarian-McCollough Art Gallery, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, NY, "Recent Paintings"

  • 2000: PaintingsDIRECT.com, "Featured Artist"

  • 1999: Open Studio, New York, NY

  • 1997: Open Studio, New York, NY

  • 1994: Visage Gallery of Contemporary Art, Panama City, Panama, "Personal Perspectives"

  • 1991: Open Studio, New York, NY

  • 1990: Blue Moon Gallery, New York, Santa Cruz, CA, " Interiors"

  • Group Exhibitions
  • 2007:
  • National Museum of Catholic Art & History, New York, NY, "The Black Madonna Exhibition"

  • 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, New York, NY, "30th Small Works Exhibition" (curated by Jim Kempner director of Jim Kempner Fine Arts, NYC)

  • 2006:
  • The Cathedral Foundation, Covington, KY, "Vision X International Juried Art Exhibit" (curated by Abby S. Shwarzt Scott Boberg and Ceil Dorger)

  • Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, NY, "71rst Annual National Exhibition" (curated by Elizabeth Barker, Director of Picker Art Gallery and Sydney Waller, Executive Director of The Sculpture Space)

  • 2003:
  • AmelieWallace Gallery, CUNY College at Old Westbury, CT, "Intimate Portraits"

  • Hub-Robeson Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, PA, "21rst National Small Works Exhibition" (Curator: Sondra Freckelton)

  • Schohaire County Arts, Cobleskill, NY, "21rst National Small Works Exhibition" (Curator: Katherine Bowling)

  • George Billis Gallery, New York, NY, "Innaugural Show"

  • 2002:
  • Old Westbury State University of New York, Old Westbury, NY, "Hispanic Expressions"

  • 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, New York, NY, "25th Small Works Competition" (Curated by Barbara Millstein, Director of the Brooklyn Museum of Art)

  • 2001: Rudolph Projects Gallery, Houston, TX, "Intimate Spaces"

  • 2000:
  • PaintingsDIRECT.com, "The Artist in the Mirror"

  • PaintingsDIRECT.com, "Noble Creatures"

  • 1999: Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky, "Fin de Siecle"

  • 1998:
  • The Smithtown Township Council on the Arts, 23 Annual Juried Fine Arts Competition, St. James, NY

  • Venezuelan Consulate, New York, NY, "Venezuelan Talent in NYC"

  • Erector Square, New Haven, CT, "Women in the Visual Arts"

  • Frame Circus, Santa Cruz, CA, "Fantasies"

  • 1997: 62nd Annual National Exhibition of the Artist Association, Cooperstown, NY

  • 1996:
  • Venezuelan Consulate, New York, NY, "In Celebration of Venezuelan Independence Day"

  • Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen and Hamilton Law Firm, New York, NY, "Feathers and Fur, Emerging Artists"

  • 1995:
  • Codella Fourth Annual Columbia Art & Film Festival, New York, NY

  • Smithtown Arts Council, St James, NY, "Races Hispanicas: Hispanic Roots"

  • Smithtown Arts Council, St James, NY, "Whose Body is it Anyway?"

  • 1994:
  • Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY, "Couples"

  • Codella Third Annual Columbia Art & Film Festival, New York, NY

  • Roger Smith Gallery, New York, NY, "Latin American Magic Realism"

  • Venezuelan American Cultural Association, New York, NY, "Young Venezuelan Painters"

  • 1993:
  • Visual Age, New York, NY, "Six Latin American Artists"

  • Venezuelan Center Gallery, New York, NY, "Venezuelan +1 Artstorming"

  • United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, New York, NY, "Award for Latin American Artists"

  • Manhattanville College, Purchase, NY, "Latin American Artists: Personal Perspectives"

  • The Figure in Contemporary, Bard College

  • Oakland Community College, Farmington, MI "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: Women in the Arts"

  • Cadena Studio, New York, NY, "Space & Evolution"

  • Artsquad Contemporary, Easton, PA "Women on Women"

  • 1992:
  • Richmond International Airport, Richmond, VA, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall"

  • Kool Art, New York, NY, "The New Art Scene"

  • 1991: Galeria Arias, Madrid, Spain, "Trabajos en Papel"

  • 1990: Peggy Erikson Gallery, Half Moon Bay, CA, "Bay Area Landscapes"


  • 2001-2007: Hoge/Santiago Art Collection, New York, NY

  • 1996: Silver/Weinstein Print Collection, Berkeley, CA

  • 1990: Santa Cruz Cultural Council, Santa Cruz, CA

  • 1989: University of California Art Department, Santa Cruz, CA

  • 1989: Baron Berrett Wilson, San Francisco, CA

    		•

    Selection of paintings from Roxa Smith


    Read the guestbook of Roxa Smith

    Sign the guestbook of Roxa Smith

  • Alexander Rutsch Award painting finalist, Pelhalm Art Center, Pelham, NY, 2007

  • Jury Prize Winner, Visions X International Juried Exhibition, The Cathedral Foundation, Covington, KY, 2006

  • ARTnews Award, 71st Annual National Exhibition, Cooperstown Arts Association, Cooperstown, NY, 2006

  • Latin American Artist Award, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 1993

  • Adamant Foundation Grant, Adamant Colony, Adamant, VT, 1988

  • Teaching Fellowship, University of Santa Cruz, 1987

  • Magna Cum Laude, Bowdoin College, 1984

    • Read what the press is saying about Roxa Smith

  • "Introducing Roxa Smith" Bang Sister - Taiwan, January, 2006

  • The Westchester County Times, February, 2005

  • "Images of Mary" The New York Times/Westchester Section, December 26, 2004

  • "Madonna in the Spotlight" Hudson Valley Magazine, December, 2004

  • "Arts and Goings-on" Westchestermag.com, November, 2004

  • "Manhattan/Bronx/Westchester" Caribbean Life, November 30, 2004

  • "Portraits, New York" Bloom Arts and Literature Magazine, September, 2004

  • "A Renaissance Touch" The New York Sun, January 5, 2004

  • "Old Westbury Honors Artistic Expressions" Latin Long Island Magazine, December, 2002

  • "Exploring Sound and Art And Celebrating Heritage," The New York Times, October 1, 1995

  • "Hispanic Heritage," Newsday, September 22, 1995

  • El Panama America, Panama City, Panama, 1994

  • La Prensa, Panama City, Panama, 1994

  • Panorama Internacional, Panama City, Panama, 1994

  • Canal 41, New York, NY, 1993

  • Venevision, New York, NY, 1993