Entre la Coca y el Oro by Tatiana Arocha Opens at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art

The exhibition confronts colonial narratives, reframing Coca as a living source of memory, resilience, and the ecological and cultural legacy of the Andes

New York, N.Y. — Entre la Coca y el Oro is a site-responsive exhibition by Colombian artist Tatiana Arocha that reclaims the sacred and cultural meaning of the Coca plant. Opening October 12, 2025, at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor in Staten Island, the exhibition links Colombia’s biodiversity to histories of violence, resistance, and healing by challenging the colonial and extractivist narratives that have historically criminalized Coca.

While Coca is often globally reduced to its association with cocaine, across the Andes, it remains a sacred plant—central to medicine, ritual, and agriculture. Entre la Coca y el Oro shifts this perception by centering ancestral knowledge, Indigenous worldviews, and the lived experiences of Latin American migrant women who have faced displacement and loss.

Entre la Coca y el Oro offers a counterpoint rooted in care, cultural diplomacy, and community resilience. It also brings into focus the lived experiences of Latin American immigrant women in New York City, revealing the deep connections between migration and the War on Drugs.

At the center of the exhibition is Sueño con Jardines de Coca, a site-responsive installation of fifty handmade Coca bushes created in collaboration with the women’s collective Fundación San Lorenzo de Barichara in Colombia. Surrounding this central work, one gallery transforms a 19th-century European-style salon as tropical flora and fauna overtake its colonial décor, while another presents video portraits of the ceremonial preparation of mambe inside a Muinane maloka. The exhibition also includes Entrelazándonos con el Territorio, a body of work developed through a five-part workshop series led by Arocha with thirteen Latina immigrant women in New York City, where participants explored memory, identity, and relationships to land. Together, these installations form a living archive of shared experience and creative resilience, anchored in collective authorship.

“Working on Entre la Coca y el Oro has been a transformative experience,” shares artist Tatiana Arocha. “It has allowed me to explore new visual and conceptual languages, dismantle harmful narratives about the Coca, and deeply engage with Indigenous knowledge and community-led restoration.”

“Entre la Coca y el Oro is the result of several years of close collaboration between Snug Harbor and visual artist-in-residence Tatiana Arocha,” said Melissa West, Director & Senior Curator, Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art. “This exhibition uniquely embodies our vision as a residency space where artists take creative risks and co-create with community. Arocha’s work is daring, visually stunning, and deeply relevant—we’re thrilled to share it with the public.”

The project is accompanied by Descocainizar la Coca, a bilingual 164-page publication co-edited by Arocha and Colombian anthropologist Marcela Vallejo. With essays by women scholars and Indigenous leaders, the book critically examines how coca has been reduced to its association with cocaine while affirming its ecological, medicinal, and cultural value. It invites readers to reflect on deeper relationships with land, justice, and memory.

Exhibition-related programming www.tatianaarocha.com/entre-la-coca-y-el-oro

DETAILS FOR VISITORS

Exhibition on view: October 12, 2025 – January 11, 2026

Opening Celebration: Sunday, October 12, 2025, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Gallery Hours: Friday – Saturday: 12:00 PM – 7:00 PM | Sunday: 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Location: Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art – Edificio C, Main Hall Gallery, Snug Harbor

1000 Richmond Ter, Staten Island, NY 10301

Gallery Admission: $5.00 ($4.00 Students/Seniors); Free for Snug Harbor Members

Learn more about this exhibition at snug-harbor.org/newhousecenter  

This exhibition is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, with additional funding from the Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts with the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with the support of the Mayor and the City Council. It has also received support from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Consulado de Colombia en Nueva York, Casa Colombia Nueva York, and Colombia Nos Une.

ABOUT TATIANA AROCHA

Tatiana Arocha (b. 1974) is an American/Colombian artist. Her art practice explores intimacy between people and land, rooted in personal memory and her immigrant experience, and centers on community through public art interventions and transdisciplinary knowledge exchange. Most often, Arocha’s works vivify and reconstruct the vulnerable tropical forests of her homeland, confronting the ecological, emotional, and cultural loss caused by extractive economies and colonial practices. In weaving together historical and contemporary technologies, Arocha’s unconventional process and craft express her multi-layered relationship with nature and cultural transformation.

Arocha was recently awarded a NYSCA Support for Artists grant, was a MacDowell Fellow in 2023, and was the recipient of the Annual Award for Excellence in Design by the Public Design Commission of the City of New York in 2024, as well as an artist in residence at Residency Unlimited and Santa Fe Art Institute. Past residencies include The Lower East Side Printshop, LABverde, Sinfonia Tropico, and The Wassaic Project. Arocha has received funding from The Sustainable Arts Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, and City Artist Corps, and was the recipient of the Brookfield Place New York Annual Arts Commission and the FST StudioProjects Fund.

Solo exhibitions include the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, BioBAT Project Space, Queens Botanical Garden, and site-specific installations at the Brooklyn Public Library, BRIC, Brookfield Place/Winter Garden, MTA Arts, Goethe-Institut Kolumbien, and Hilton Bogota Corferias. She has participated in group exhibitions at PS122, Smack Mellon, Wave Hill, BRIC, The Wassaic Project, ArtBridge, KODALab, and The Clemente.

tatianaarocha.com · IG @arocha.tatiana

ABOUT THE NEWHOUSE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART AT SNUG HARBOR

The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art is Staten Island’s leading incubator for bold and innovative art. Through exhibitions, residencies, performances, public art, and related public programming, we activate historical, architectural, and environmental connections throughout Snug Harbor’s 83-acre cultural campus, in conversation with contemporary culture. The Newhouse Center encompasses 15,000 square feet of space, including the Main Hall Gallery, the oldest landmarked building on campus. The Newhouse Center promotes inquiry and advances scholarship through contemporary art subjects. The Newhouse Center was the flagship program when Snug Harbor opened as a cultural institution in 1977, and has served as a vibrant space for creativity, connection, and community for over 45 years.