Matthew Marks Gallery

This book presents, for the first time, thirty works on paper made between 1981 and 2017. Building on the unique graphic vocabulary and innovative compositions of Rocca’s 1960s work, these drawings represent a turn toward imagery she describes as “more internal.” Animals, trees, and unclassifiable creatures are placed in densely patterned settings that carry a genuine emotional charge.

In the essay, Cat Kron notes Rocca’s “increased attention to the unconscious,” tracing parallels between the artist’s “anxious imaginings” and the automatic drawing of the Surrealists. As Rocca puts it, “I just begin, and the drawing is a journey between me and the marks on the paper.”