Roxa Smith draws on her lived experiences growing up in Venezuela and studying in the United States in her paintings, transforming domestic environments and everyday objects into vibrant celebrations of the mundane, viewed from an off-kilter perspective.
Smith's painting has always been deeply influenced by her surroundings. While studying in California she was an active participant in a group of 'plein-air' painters, cementing her love of painting–particularly landscapes. However it was after moving to New York City in the 1990s that Smith, without easy access to landscape references, turned her focus inward, grounding her work in quotidian domestic settings. Finding aesthetic inspiration in Latin American art, Indian miniature painting, Post-Impressionism, and naïve and outsider art traditions, Smith’s interiors, rendered in acrylic and gouache, are familiar, yet idiosyncratic.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Smith currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. After graduating from Bowdoin College with a BA in Art History and German in 1984, she went on to receive a Graduate Certificate in Fine Arts from University of California in 1987. Smith participated in her first exhibition, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, curated by Teresa Bramlett, at Richmond International Airport in 1992. Her work has subsequently been exhibited widely, with solo and duo exhibitions at Visage Gallery of Contemporary Art in Panama City, Panama (1994), George Billis Gallery in New York and Los Angeles (2002, 2004), Kenise Barnes Fine Arts in Larchmont, New York (2012), the Sheldon Museum at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska (2014), and the Museum of Pocket Art in Austin, Texas (2023), and group exhibitions at the Venezuelan American Cultural Association in New York, NY (1994), Roger Smith Gallery in New York, NY (1994), the Venezuelan Consulate in New York, NY (1996, 1998), the 62nd Annual Cooperstown Artist Association (1997), Sarah Meltzer Gallery in New York, NY (2001), Washington Square East Galleries, NYU Galleries in New York, NY (2004), the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York, NY (2007), Gormley Gallery at College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland (2009), the 121st National Association for Women Artists Annual Exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York, NY (2010), the Conde Nast Building Lobby in New York (2013), NYFA Gallery in New York, NY (2016), Art on Paper in New York, NY (2022), Contemporary Istanbul in Istanbul, Turkey (2023), d’Art Center in Norfold, Virginia (2025), and Drawing Rooms in Jersey City, New Jersey (2025, 2026). Smith has received various awards, fellowships, and residencies, including the Latin American Artist Award in 1993, and the prestigious New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA)-Basil Alkazi Fellowship at the Sheldon Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska in 2013. In 2017, Smith was a finalist for a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Arts and Design commission, and since received the Walter J. and Anna H. Buchanan Trust Memorial Prize at The 86th Annual Juried Art Exhibition at the Cooperstown Arts Association in 2021, Best in Show at the Color Competition at Artist Space Gallery in 2024, and the Arts to Hearts Project Merit Award from the Women in the Arts Network in 2025.