Gamaliel Rodríguez, Figure 1827, 2018. acrylic and ink on paper. 50 x 38 in. Courtesy of the artist
Constant Storm: Art from Puerto Rico and the Diaspora
September 24 – December 4, 2021
USF Contemporary Art Museum + Online
HOURS: Monday-Friday 10am – 5pm; Thursday 10am–8pm; Saturday 1-4pm; Closed Sundays and USF Holidays (November 11, 25, 26, 27). Visitors to the museum are expected to wear masks and practice social distancing.
Constant Storm: Art From Puerto Rico and the Diaspora will gather, display, record, and conceptualize artistic responses to Hurricane Maria by artists from Puerto Rico and the diaspora. Through artworks and their narratives and socially engaged initiatives, voices from the island and Puerto Rican communities in New York and Florida will materialize a synoptic view of Puerto Rico’s fragile recovery as part of an evolving, 121-year-old historical crisis.
Participating artists include: Rogelio Báez Vega, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, Jorge González Santos, Karlo Andrei Ibarra, Ivelisse Jiménez, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Miguel Luciano, SkittLeZ-Ortiz, Angel Otero, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz, Gabriel Ramos, Jezabeth Roca González, Gamaliel Rodríguez, Yiyo Tirado Rivera.
Curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné, CAM Curator at Large, and Noel Smith, Former Deputy Director and Curator of Latin American and Caribbean Art: organized by USF Contemporary Art Museum
ONLINE EXHIBITION
Exhibition Home // Curatorial Essay | Ensayo Curatorial // Acknowledgements and Foreword | Agradecimientos y Prólogo // Rogelio Báez Vega (EN) | Rogelio Báez Vega (ES) // Jorge González Santos (EN) | Jorge González Santos (ES) // Karlo Andrei Ibarra (EN) | Karlo Andrei Ibarra (ES) // Ivelisse Jiménez (EN) | Ivelisse Jiménez (ES) // Miguel Luciano (EN) | Miguel Luciano (ES) // Natalia Lassalle-Morillo & Sofía Gallisá Muriente (EN) | Natalia Lassalle-Morillo & Sofía Gallisá Muriente (ES) // Angel Otero (EN) | Angel Otero (ES) // Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (EN) | Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (ES) // Gabriel Ramos (EN) | Gabriel Ramos (ES) // Jezabeth Roca González (EN) | Jezabeth Roca González (ES) // Gamaliel Rodríguez (EN) | Gamaliel Rodríguez (ES) // Yiyo Tirado Rivera (EN) | Yiyo Tirado Rivera (ES)
Gamaliel Rodríguez
Artist Gamaliel Rodríguez is also concerned with apocalyptic visions. His series of mixed media drawings present eerie views of airport control towers from four different airports in Puerto Rico. These control towers were disabled when Maria destroyed Puerto Rico's already fragile power grid. Neglected even before the storm, the airports these towers served constituted entrances and exits for Puerto Ricans. After Maria, flights to the mainland U.S. cost as much as $2,000; during the COVID-19 pandemic they dropped to under $100. Rodríguez recognizes his contemporary moment. These towers are meticulously drafted in otherworldly purples, reds, and grays, and bristle with antennas and tropical plants. Their functions as connections to global infrastructure are lost. They remain defeated dystopian monuments, toppled by the rigors of nature, time, and politics.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Gamaliel Rodríguez (Bayamón, Puerto Rico, 1977)
Lives and works in San Juan.
Gamaliel Rodríguez works with pencil, ink, acrylic, and ballpoint pen to produce aerial views of artificial industrial, military, and civilian structures in Puerto Rico and the US territories. He has participated in numerous residencies and fellowships such as The MacDowell Fellowship (Peterborough, NH) and the International Studio & Curatorial Program Residency (Brooklyn, NY). Rodríguez’s work has been shown at SCAD Museum of Art (Savannah, GA); MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA); Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (San Juan); the Bronx Museum of the Arts (NY); and Museum Arnhem (Netherlands).
Constant Storm: Art from Puerto Rico and the Diaspora is made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and supported by the Tampa Bay Rays and the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The symposium Bregando with Disasters: Post Hurricane Maria Realities and Resiliencies is supported by a Humanities Centers Grant from Florida Humanities. The USF Contemporary Art Museum is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
