Roxa Smith is a Brooklyn-based artist working primarily in figurative painting and collage. Born and raised in Venezuela, she studied Western Art History and German at Bowdoin College, Maine and received a Postgraduate degree in Fine Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She moved to New York City in the early 1990s where she began to explore and eventually anchor her work in themes of quotidian domestic settings. Various international genres influence Roxa's work including Latin American art, Indian miniature painting, Post Impressionism and naïve art.
Throughout the years, Roxa has exhibited in multiple solo exhibitions and two-person shows. In 2013, she had a midcareer show in which she exhibited over 25 pieces in the atrium of the Conde Nast building in Times Square, New York City. Roxa has also exhibited her work at many other venues such as: The Focus Gallery at the Sheldon Museum (NE), Kenise Barnes Fine Arts (NY), Lyly's Gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel (NYC) and George Billis Gallery (NYC and LA). Roxa's work has additionally appeared in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Roxa has received a range of awards, residencies and fellowships. Most recently in 2021, she participated in "Creative Imperative," a program sponsored by the Vermont Studio Center, Vermont and was awarded an Artist Grant by the same program. 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's Boot camp: Artist as an Entrepreneur program in 2011. She has been featured in New American Paintings, Studio Visit Magazine, Artspace Magazine, the NYFA Newsletter Artspire, and HuffPost.