Roxa Smith was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She came to the US in her teens and attended Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, earning a BA in 1984 in Art History and German with a minor in Visual Arts. She later received a Graduate Certificate in the Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1987.

In California, she was an active participant of a group of 'plein-air' painters led by Lundy Siegrist and Terry St. John, one of the original Bay Area 'plein air' painters of the 1970s. Being part of this group cemented her love for painting and in particularly at that point in landscape painting, which she focused on until she moved to New York City in 1991.

In the 1990s, New York City was not the visually beautiful city it is today. Not inspired to paint the landscape of New York City, Roxa turned to painting people's interiors, which were full of life and color. Over the course of years, Roxa worked on a variety of other subject matter such as Animals in Interiors, Mindscapes and Toys and Robots. However, Roxa's love for interpreting every day contemporary life has always anchored her art. Besides painting, Roxa has also explored paper collage using the themes of chairs and bicycles. Since the pandemic, Roxa has continued re-interpreting contemporary indoor scenes focusing in particular on plants and chairs. Her colorful paintings have evolved into familiar and idiosyncratic reconsiderations of space where patterns and details reign supreme.


Throughout the years, Roxa has exhibited in multiple solo and two-person shows. In March 2023, Roxa will have her first solo exhbition at C24 Gallery (NYC). She will also be the featured artist in the Museum of Pocket Art in Austin Texas. In 2022, she had a sold out show at C24 Gallery (NYC) in a two-person exhibit. In 2013, she had a midcareer show at the Conde Nast in Times Square, New York City. Roxa has exhibited at many other venues including: The Focus Gallery at the Sheldon Museum (NE), Kenise Barnes Fine Arts (NY), Lyly’s Gallery at the Rodger Smith Hotel (NYC) and George Billis Gallery (NYC and LA).


Roxa has received a range of awards, residencies, and fellowships. In 2022,she was awarded artist of the week in the online magazine: Epicenter-NYC. In 2021, she received the The Walter J. and Anna H. Burchan Trust Memorial Prize at the 86th Annual Juried Art Exhibition in Cooperstown, NY. That same year, she was awarded an Artist Grant by the Vermont Studio Center. In 2017, Roxa was a finalist for a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Arts and Design commission (Brooklyn, New York.) In 2013, she was awarded the prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)-Basil Alkazi Fellowship at the Sheldon Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 2012, Roxa received a Fellowship in Painting from NYFA a year after receiving a grant to attend NYFA Boot camp: Artist as an Entrepreneur program in 2011.

She has been published in many magazines and newspapers. In April 2023, her work will appearin the I Like Your Work 2023 Spring Catalogue. In 2022, Interlocutor magazine and Viceversa magazine published articles about her 2 person exhibition at C24Gallery. In 2011, she was included in New American Paintings Norhteast Catalogue (Vol.99). Studio Visit Magazine featured her art in 2221 (Vol 50) and in 2011 (Vol.16). Other publications to showcase Roxa's work include Artspace magazine (2019), the NYFA Newsletter Artspire (2012), New York Times, Connecticut and Westchester section (2015) and HuffPost (2012).

Roxa is represented by C24Gallery, Chelsea, NY.



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Roxa Smith