Areca Roe
United States
Biography
Areca Roe is an artist based in Minnesota, USA. She uses photography as well as video, sculpture, and installation to explore the interface between the natural and human domains.
Roe is an Associate Professor of photography and video at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and a member of Rosalux Gallery, an artist collective in Minneapolis. Her work has been featured on several websites and publications, including The New York Times, Lenscratch, Colossal, Slate, Juxtapoz, WIRED, National Geographic, and Fast Company; as well as in print for Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and The New Territory magazine.
She has shown work internationally, including at Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm, New York, and Shanghai, as well as The Momentary in Arkansas, Sioux City Art Center in Iowa, and Soo Visual Art Center in Minnesota. Several of her pieces recently became part of the permanent collection at the Minnesota Museum of American Art and the Minnesota Historical Society.
Roe has received several grants and fellowships supporting her work, including the Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant and the Art(ists) on the Verge Fellowship.
Project
“Stock Pile” by Areca Roe is a playful, conceptual photographic and video project in which the artist engages with the ubiquitous world of stock imagery by responding directly to the prompts used by commercial stock photography companies. Instead of producing polished, generic visuals for clients, Roe takes these stock briefs — which predict trending motifs and themes — and misunderstands, exaggerates or literalises them in quick, creative images and videos made at home or nearby with what she has on hand. This approach highlights how stock imagery synthesises cultural trends and aspirations, often with bland cheeriness, and turns it into a vehicle for reflection and absurdity. Stock Pile has manifested as both an online series and a solo exhibition and has been published as a book featuring an essay by Sheila Dickinson.
