©evarocha #EvaRocha #artist #brazilian #contemporaryartists #women_artists #latinx__artist #biboc_artist #artistas_do_Brasil
I was born in a 3 streets, 9 blocks town in Brazil. Itacolomy as it was called was not in the map. It is now. It is now called Novo Itacolomi (New itacolomi). The word Itacolomy, by the way, means Beautiful Rock in the native language of Brazil. There were no galleries or museums in Itacolomy. But yes, there was Art. An art that was genuine to place and collective expression. And what is that which is called art? Who were those that decided what art is? What is implicit in the art dialogue - if there is one. Who are the ones who decide who participate in the arts, in the arts’ dialogue? Art creation is not a privilege. Art is an atemporal own alphabet of any so-called-culture. Art exists prior to definitions of culture or art.
Father and Mother
Me, first on the left, playing with a doll that belonged to my coining from the city who came to visit.
Unfamiliar portrait with mother and father [and neckbracet at age 16]
…washing my grandmother’s hair in the Rio São Francisco
When I was looking at my indigenous grandmother in the river, I thought:
Latina. I used to have a nonprofit to promote Latinx Art and take art programs to marginalized Latino communities [most Latinos in the US are Indigenous descendants]. I fought for inclusion and to open for fair conditions to participate. I advocated for what I believed that, art, as a place of participation and dialogue, should be aaccessible to all groups. Talent is not privilege, but conditions to participate in the arts is.
Project Mixtecas: I met with the indigenous Mixtec women immigrants to the United States. I shown them textiles works in Arte History and in Contemporary Art to create knowledge of the quality of their art. We did an exhibition of their art - not as a house cloth- but as an Art in an Art Installation of Textiles Art. Their work was seen as art and it was sold not as a kitchen cloth but as a well priced art. Empowerment is a right!
I used to participate with a group of women artists and social workers on a staged ‘arm fighting’ - we raised money for social causes.
While working with communities I was also invited to participate in the arts. A career in the arts initiate organically. I received a prize as emerging artist in 2016.
#EvaRocha #artist #brazilian #contemporary #womenartist #latinxartist #bibocartist #emergingartist #artistas_do_Brasil
In 2021 I was awarded my very first solo: It was due to have won First Prize (with this work) at the Taubman Museum’s trienal. The solo was at the Taubman. I dedicated it to the history of Indigenous Peoples and descendants in diaspora.
Bio:
Eva Rocha is a Brazilian multimedia artist. Born in a town with three streets, without access to art materials, she drew on the ground with her hair or a thread. At nineteen she moved to São Paulo and visited an art museum, MASP, for the first time. Discouraged by the cost of traditional art materials and inclusion in the arts, her social participation as an artist and dedication to a career in the Visual Arts only took place in recent years. While living in the Andes of Peru, she was impacted by archaeological sites and Pre-Columbian art creation practices, and it led her to develop sculpting methods pertaining to the aesthetics of artifacts. Although still an emerging artist, without commercial representation, her work has been shown in several museums in the United States, where she lived from 2011-2023. After fifteen group open-calls exhibitions in museums, always submitting different works, she was awarded a solo exhibition at the Taubman Museum [2023]. She created all new works for the exhibition, using Indigenous artifacts as a reference, and used as a material, among others, hair. The artist now lives in Brazil.