Rocio Cabello

“I am inspired by local artists who are in the trenches doing the community work necessary to create change on the ground level.”

Rocio Cabello is a visual and public artist, educator, cultural activist and avid gardener originally from Peru. In 2012, she co-founded iMPeRFeCT Gallery, where she gives artists freedom and space to exhibit their work. In a part of Philadelphia that once felt like a cultural desert, the gallery is now a hub for creatives and art lovers to gather, share, and affect change.

Rocio’s personal studio practice involves working with wire to write, draw and create pieces that reflect on themes of personal growth, the resilience of the human spirit and the tragic disconnection between humans and nature. The public aspect to her artwork includes murals, sidewalk paintings, playground floor games and a handful of “green interventions” in the form of public unfenced gardens in NYC and now in Philadelphia.

how do you define creativity?

“Creativity is our ability to look at something with fresh eyes and be able to use our imagination to come up with solutions in new ways, maybe from perspectives not considered before.”

Who are your local heroes?

“Artists who are speaking truth, who are in the trenches doing the community work necessary to create change on the ground level.”

Biography:

Rocio Cabello is a visual and public artist, educator, cultural activist/organizer and avid gardener originally from Peru. Her personal, studio practice involves working with wire to write, draw and create pieces that reflect on themes of personal growth, the resilience of the human spirit and the tragic disconnection between humans and nature among others. The public aspect to her artwork includes murals, sidewalk paintings, playground floor games and a handful of “green interventions” in the form of public unfenced gardens in NYC and now in Philadelphia.

In 2012, she co-founded iMPeRFeCT Gallery, a grassroots not-for-profit alternative art space in Germantown. This more public facet of her, is more of a cultural producer, as the gallery presents a wide variety of artistic expressions while giving their artists as much freedom as possible. This project has proven to be a good tool to broaden the impact that she has in her community, in a place that felt like a cultural desert, the gallery is now a hub for creatives and art lovers to gather, share, inspire each other and affect change.