Alicia Rojas (1976) is a Colombian-born artist, living in Orange County, CA. She participates in movements of immigrant rights, anti-gentrification, social economic equity and ecology. Alicia’s artistic practice starts as an exploration of self expression and healing, which led her to paint almost 100 self-portraits in one year. Her practice has a collaborative and storytelling process in which paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures and murals are not the end result but rather part of her art making pedagogy. Her work contributes to the historical memory of the collective and facilitates placemaking within communities of color.

 

The artist is a California Arts Council, Established Artists Fellow grantee, and a Creative Corps Fellow. Rojas has held residencies at Grand Central Art Center, funded through a grant by The Andy Warhol Foundation and a Community Engagement Residency in Akumal, Mexico.

 

She is the Director and Co-founder of the Santa Ana Community Artis(a) Coalition, an organization founded with the mission to connect local artists to their communities in a collaborative process to create art that transforms public spaces, generates civic engagement, and promotes personal and social change. Rojas was a founding member of the City of Santa Ana arts steering committee and a participant of the Occupy movement.

 

“I am shaped by my experiences and relationships with others but I am an artist because of my own immigrant experience. My story is not unique, quite the contrary it’s very common in many immigrant children. What we do with that is what is extraordinary. We are extraordinary Americans.”