Shifting Matter

Roca NYC Showroom presents Shifting Matter, a group exhibition that celebrates a profound reverence for nature-based 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 conversation 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 square feet in the Flatiron District, the Roca NYC Showroom showcases premium tiles—from marble to wood, concrete to stone—designed for residential, industrial, and commercial use. With a dedicated team supporting the architecture and design community, Roca Tile USA has established itself as a key player in the global ceramic and porcelain tile market.

About the exhibition:
The artists and designers featured 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 an ongoing dialogue with non-human forces—treating them as creative partners. Physical and chemical transformations take center stage, with the creators acting as contemporary alchemists. Variables such as temperature, movement, photosynthesis, and evaporation become tools for rethinking ideas of territory, functionality, technology, and speculative futures.

The works incorporate roots, fungi, algae, water, recycled plastic, glass, and other organic and reclaimed materials. This approach inherently redefines our understanding of time, necessity, and possibility. Rather than simply adopting a “green” label, the exhibition delves into the complexities of change—highlighting the challenges and tensions involved in transitioning toward sustainable practices. It questions both the physical and conceptual obstacles of this shift and 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 that emerge from these intersections.

Co-curated by artists Sabrina Merayo Nuñez and Deville Cohen, the exhibition will include a Climate Impact Report (CIR), produced in collaboration with Artists Commit, a collective dedicated to a climate-conscious, resilient, and equitable future.

Join us on Tuesday, May 16, at 6 PM for a public program presented in partnership with Artists Commit, fostering dialogue on the climate impact of artistic practices and the role of art and design in shaping a sustainable future.

Participating artists:
Deville Cohen, Kamila Csegzi, Claudia Kaatziza Cortinez, Zena Holloway, Sabrina Merayo Nuñez, Lolo Ostia, Roxane Revon, Tarah Rhoda, Mika Rottenberg, Sarah Strauss.