Carolina Rojas Sculptor
About Carolina Rojas
I am a Venezuelan-born sculptor living and working in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Through clay and bronze, I explore identity, migration, nature, transformation, and the emotions that connect us across cultures and places.
Art has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. My early studies included drawing, industrial design, sculpture, clay techniques, and bronze casting. At twenty-one, I began working in a foundry alongside the other workers. Surrounded by heat, dust, tools, and bronze shavings, I discovered the demanding physical process behind bronze sculpture. Those were some of the happiest days of my life. I felt completely at home, and the experience created a lasting connection between craftsmanship, bronze, and joy.
From Venezuela to North Carolina
Before immigrating to the United States, I created the Aquas series. Inspired by the Caribbean Sea, those sculptures became companions and guides as I left Venezuela and crossed toward a new life. That personal journey continues to influence my work through themes of movement, uncertainty, resilience, belonging, and hope.
After moving to North Carolina, I rediscovered clay and fell deeply in love with its expressive possibilities. Clay offered an immediate and intimate connection between my hands, emotions, and imagination. It has since become my primary material, the medium through which most of my ideas first take form.
My sculptures often begin with personal experiences, but I want them to speak beyond my own story. In series such as Global Man, I explore a universal human presence that belongs to no single gender, race, culture, or place. In Golden Seeds, I reflect on renewal and our responsibility to protect the natural world. Through Spirits, I seek to give form to the invisible forces that can be felt but not always seen.
My work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally and is held in private collections in several countries. Wherever my sculptures travel, I hope they invite viewers to pause, feel, and recognize something of themselves, and of our shared humanity, within the work.
