To say Dan Rocha is a prolific artist is an understatement. Since beginning his artistic career, he has shown in nearly two dozen galleries in Massachusetts, Vermont and New York. His paintings are easily recognized by his colleagues in Lowell, where he exhibits extensively as a member of the Arts League of Lowell. In addition, his art may be frequently seen in Boston and Somerville, at the Galetea and Brickbottom Galleries.

 

119 Gallery is also privileged to exhibit Rocha's work regularly-- he has shown in both our members' and juried exhibits each year since we opened. And, while he has been in a number national and regional juried exhibits and competitions, we couldn't be more proud of his most recent accolade -winning our 6th Annual Juried Exhibit in 2010.

 

It is with great pleasure that we feature Rocha's new work in his first solo exhibit at 119 Gallery entitled, Reflections / Deflections. Visitors to the gallery will be thrilled, but not perhaps surprised, to find nearly two dozen works on view. What will surprise viewers is that the bulk of his new works are not paintings, but like our jurors' winning selection, sculptures.

 

As in his paintings, Rocha's sculptures attempts to reconcile opposites, both visually, and symbolically. In his paintings, the romanticism of soft-focused color fields is contrasted with hard-edged purity. In this way, he creates a compelling visual tension.

 

"The sculptures I create make use of parameters that are similar to those found in my paintings; they combine opposing elements. In my sculptures these disparities are found in their use of materials and surfaces, which contrast the natural and organic with the machine and industrial made. The use of mirrors adds a further visual ambiguity, as clean spatial properties are contrasted with the organic shapes."  --Dan Rocha.

   

Dan Rocha has a Masters of Education from Cambridge College and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art.