Barbara Roca
ARTIST STATEMENT
Barbara Roca, multimedia artist, her quest for origins, understanding, and wisdom has led her to follow different paths. First the Miami River, its geography, and its history is a big influence on her work. “Since the moment I arrived in Miami, sixteen years ago, I’ve had a fascination with the Ocean, the Bay and the Miami River surrounding my home, my life.”
In 2009 with her red Holga camera in hand, and a video tape recorder, she took long walks under the Brickell Avenue Bridge. A body of work emerged, prints, artist books, videos, photographs and paintings can be seen on her website.
Another personal quest for origins has taken her back to early beginnings in her hometown Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. She works on an ongoing series that stemmed from old photographs she took nineteen years ago on the streets of downtown around the main Plaza, the center of the city.
She continues her search to know more about the wisdom of the original natives.
BIO
Her love for the arts started in Paris 20 years ago, and it hasn't stopped since. There, Barbara took painting and drawing lessons at the Parsons School and classes with various Parisian painting masters.
Later she relocated back to Santa Cruz de la Sierra Bolivia, her hometown, to start a prolific production of paintings for seven years while exhibiting around the country and studying printmaking at NUR University. In 2004, she moved to Miami and worked at Frederic Snitzer Gallery for some years. Also, she transferred credits from NUR University and continued her studies at New World School of the Arts for six years. She graduated in 2012, Cum Laude, with a double major in Graphic Design and Digital Media. She obtained her Museum Studies Certificate at Florida International University (FIU) in 2015.
She assisted at the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry from 2012 to 2016. In September 2015 she opened ABC Silkscreen shop, where she helped creatives make their printed related projects come alive.
From 2015 to 2016 she interned at the FIU-Wolfsonian Museum, assisting Frank Luca in curating and archiving.
She enrolled in the MFA in Visual Arts: Curatorial Practice program at FIU, in 2016. As part of her degree, she organized the exhibition Form as Context (July 2017) at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum. 2017-2020 working at her studio and as a Design Resource Librarian for two major architecture firms: Arquitectonica and Gensler.
ARTIST LINKS
Website: http://www.barbararoca.net
Instagram: @barbararoca25