SHIFTING MATTER – NYCxDESIGN 2025
Organised by
ROCA TILES, Sabrina Merayo Nuñez & Deville Cohen
Dates
May 14, 2025 - May 28, 2025
Opening Hours
10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Address
18 W 21st St,,,
New York 10010
NY United States
Roca NYC Showroom presents Shifting Matter, a group exhibition that celebrates a profound love for nature-related materials, embracing them as living collaborators. The show explores the intersection of design, art, and nature, featuring creators who develop objects, works, and biomaterials in dialogue with science and natural processes. These pieces reflect a deep inquiry into how we engage with matter, inviting a reconnection to the materials that shape our world and our relationship with it.
Spanning 7,900 sq ft in the Flatiron District, the Roca NYC Showroom showcases premium tiles—from marble to wood, concrete to stone—for residential, industrial, and commercial use. become a key player in the global ceramic and porcelain tile market.
The artists and designers in Shifting Matter share a commitment to being guided by the materials and processes they study rather than using materials to serve a predetermined outcome. Their practices embrace a dialogue with non-human forces, treating those materials as creative partners. Physical and chemical transformations take center stage, with the creators acting as contemporary alchemists. They use variables like temperature, movement, photosynthesis, and evaporation as tools to rethink concepts of territory, functionality, technology, and speculative futures.
The works incorporate roots, mycelium, algae, water, recycled plastic, glass, and other organic and reclaimed materials. Rather than simply adopting a “green” label, the exhibition dives into the complexities of change—highlighting the challenges and tensions in transitioning toward sustainable practices. Questioning the physical and conceptual obstacles of this shift offers glimpses into new paradigms of materiality.
Shifting Matter is an invitation to contemplate the permeable boundaries between human and non-human, material and process, art and design—and the infinite possibilities emerging from those intersections.
Co-curated by artists Sabrina Merayo Nuñez and Deville Cohen, the exhibition will include a Climate Impact Report (CIR) published in collaboration with Artists Commit, a collective dedicated to a climate-conscious, resilient, and equitable future.
Opening night on Wednesday, 14 May, 6-9 PM.
Public program in partnership with Artists Commit, Tuesday, May 20, 6 PM, fostering dialogue on the climate impact of artistic practices and the role of art and design in shaping a sustainable future.
Participating artists:
Kamilla Csegzi, Deville Cohen, Claudia Kaatziza Cortinez, Sabrina Merayo Nunez, Lolo Ostia, Roxane Revon, Rootfull, Mika Rottenberg, Tarah Rhoda, Sarah Strauss, Patty Tomanovich
Location:
Roca Tile Studio NYC
18 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010
https://rocatileusa.com/