Biography 

Emilio Rojas (1985, Mexico City, Mexico) 

Emilio Rojas is a Mexican multidisciplinary artist and educator based in New York and Canada. Emilio’s education began at the medical school at the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico in 2008. Later on, Emilio changed paths to the arts and completed a bachelor of fine arts in film, video and integrated media from Emily Carr University in Vancouver in 2012. He continued post-graduate studies, completing a master of fine arts in performance from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017. Emilio has held permanent teaching positions at Bard College in New York and Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University in New York. Additionally, Emilio has participated in many residencies including the 2017–2018 BOLT studio residency in Chicago. He was the visiting artist/scholar in residency in the Theater and Performance Department at Bard College in New York for the 2019–2021 academic year and the inaugural resident of the Judy Pfaff Foundation in 2019–2020. 

Emilio Rojas’s studio work includes photography, video, performance, and installations to explore the politics of a queer immigrant body. Emilio has showcased in the solo exhibitions The Intersection Between Art, Politics, and Understanding (2022) at the Media Art Gallery in Boston Massachusetts, tracing a wound through my body (2021) at the Grossman Gallery at Lafayette Art Galleries in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 2021 and One Night Stand (2015) at the Mónica Reyes Gallery in Vancouver. His work has also been part of the collective exhibitions In Flux: Migration (2020) at the Chicago Cultural Centre, Chicago, Live Arts Bards Biennale (2019) at Bard College, Fisher Centre New York, and Xu (2018) in collaboration with Natalia Toledo at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Go back where you came from (Mayflower)

Without date 

Digital photograph

Image from archival documentation from performance series, Go back where you came from, 2019, Cornell Architecture, Art and Planning, Google Images 2023

Solo exhibitions

Emilio Rojas press release by Chadd Scott, solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina, 2023

Emilio Rojas press release by CVNC online journal, solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina, 2023

Emilio Rojas press release by Dalia Razo, solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina, Yes! Weekly, 2023

Emilio Rojas interview by Ox-Bow School of Art & Artists’ Residency, solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina, 2023

Emilio Rojas solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, curated by Laurel V. McLaughlin, Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, Bennington College, Vermont, 2023

Emilio Rojas solo exhibition The Intersection Between Art, Politics and Understanding, Media Art Gallery, Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, 2022 

Emilio Rojas review by Celina Colby, solo exhibition The Intersection Between Art, Politics and Understanding, Media Art Gallery, Emerson College, Boston, The Bay State Banner, 2022 

Emilio Rojas solo exhibition Tracing a wound through my Body, curated by Laurel V. McLaughlin, Grossman Gallery at Lafayette Art Galleries, Easton, Pennsylvania, 2021 

Emilio Rojas press release by Locate Arts, solo exhibition Instructions for becoming, COOP Gallery, Tennessee, 2020

Emilio Rojas solo exhibition One Night Stand, Mónica Reyes Gallery, Vancouver, 2015

Collective exhibitions

Emilio Rojas collective exhibition Remember Where You Are, curated by Mia Lopez, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, 2019- 2020

Emilio Rojas press release by Chicago Gallery News, Artist Performance: Emilio Rojas, collective exhibition Remember Where You Are, curated by Mia Lopez, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, 2019- 2020

Emilio Rojas collective exhibition Living Architecture, co-curated by Tricia Van Eck and Teresa Silva with Nathan Abhalter Smith, 6018 North, Chicago, 2018- 2019

Emilio Rojas review by Sabrina Greig, collective exhibition Living Architecture, co-curated by Tricia Van Eck and Teresa Silva with Nathan Abhalter Smith, 6018 North,  Chicago Artist Writers Platform, 2018 

Emilio Rojas collective exhibition Rule of Three, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, 2018

Interviews

Emilio Rojas interview by Laurel V. McLaughlin, Public Parking, 2021

Presentations

Emilio Rojas and Katiushka Melo press release by Syracuse University News Arts & Culture, Syracuse University Art Museum Hosts Performance, 2023 

Emilio Rojas and Katiushka Melo press release by Syracuse University Entertainment, Syracuse University Art Museum Hosts Performance, 2023 

Emilio Rojas and Laura Larson Online Artist Conversation, Sigal Museum, Pennsylvania, 2021

Emilio Rojas residency presentation Ash To Ash, Glass House Projects, New York, 2021

Emilio Rojas press release by Creatrix Magazine, residency presentation Ash To Ash, Glass House Projects, New York, 2021

Emilio Rojas online presentation with Rebecca Schneider, Your Corner of the World, Brown Arts Initiative, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 2020

Emilio Rojas performance programming In Progress: Emilio Rojas, by Curator January Parkos Arnall, Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, 2019

Published work by Emilio Rojas

Unavailable content found online, section to be updated.

Published work about Emilio Rojas

Emilio Rojas review by Emanuela Zanon, "Emilio Rojas. The Lions Teeth And/Or The World Was Once Flat," Juliet Contemporary Art Magazine, 2018

Press release

Unavailable content found online, section to be updated.

List of Grants, Awards and Projects

Emilio Rojas and Pamela Sneed, Hands to Hold digital commission, Open Society University Network, 2021

Emilio Rojas video conversation performance presentation Alien Tears’ Honors A Summer Tragedy, by Cassandra Davis, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, F News Magazine, 2016

Emilio Rojas review by Stevie Stevens, Dandelions and Naked Bodies: Emilio Rojas Artist Talk and Performance, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, F News Magazine, 2016

Emilio Rojas collective project This Place Vancouver, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, 2012

Emilio Rojas and Jeremy Harris, film project Intersections, Elsewhere Artist Residency and Museum, North Carolina, 2012

Using Format