Adál (Utuado, 1948 – San Juan, 2020)
An artist of great recognition in media such as photography, performance, and installation. He studied at the Art Center College of Design (1971-1973), in California, and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute (1973-1975). His artworks have been exhibited, and are part of the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museum of Modern, El Museo del Barrio, and The Mellon Foundation, in New York; the Museé Moderne de la Ville in Paris, France; the Musée de la Photographie in Charleroi, Belgium; and The Smithsonian American Art Museum and The National Portrait Gallery, both in Washington, D.C. In 2016, he was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship. His experience as a Nuyorican, arriving in New York City at the age of seventeen, turned the complexity of identities into one of the neuralgic concepts of his artworks,
with the frequent use of satire, and the construction of fictitious political spaces as a recurrent focus.
John Betancourt (Nueva York, 1949)
From Puerto Rican parents, he lived in New York until he moved to Puerto Rico in 1965. He graduated in Political Science and Urban Geography from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, during which time he began to explore photography in a self-taught manner. Back in New York in 1973, he studied and worked at Parsons School of Design and came into contact with the artistic movement of the city, until he returned to Puerto Rico in 1980. He has dedicated himself to documenting photographically for various organizations, galleries and art museums, as well as the work of important Puerto Rican artists. He has exhibited his artistic production at the Museo del Barrio; at the Foco Gallery, in New York; at Casa Aboy, and at the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española at the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. He participated in the Second Havana Biennial and was one of the founders of entities such as Zoom Photographic and the Consejo de Fotografía Puertorriqueña. Influenced by his studies, his photography revolves mainly around urban structures in Puerto Rico, based on his experience as a resident of New York since his childhood years..
Osvaldo Budet Meléndez (San Juan, 1979)
Graduated in Fine Arts, with a concentration in Painting, from Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño, he later obtained a Master in Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Reality and fiction are intertwined in Budet’s production, constructing the narration of historical events and biographical facts, in order to denounce the consequences of the colonial system, whether in the political, social or environmental sphere. Budet’s works have been exhibited collectively in spaces such as Umweltbundesamt (Dessau, Germany); at Millerntor Gallery, as a participant in the Kulturfestival in Hamburg; in the Santurce Project, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; and in the 2015 National Exhibition, at the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. In turn, Budet has starred in Drawn into the Light, in 2015, with Shonah Trescott, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; and Correcciones políticas, at the Galería Nacional del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, in 2011. Budet has developed numerous artistic residencies, among them the AWIPEV Residency, at the Arctic Research Base, Koldewey Station, in Ny-Ålesund, in the Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and the Residency of the Leipzig International Art Programme, in Germany. He has been awarded, among others, the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg scholarship from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Delmenhorst, Germany.
Nayda Collazo-Llorens (San Juan, 1968)
Obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a Master of Fine Arts degree from New York University. This artist has made interdisciplinarity and a variety of media one of the hallmarks of her work. Perception, memory, navigation, space and noise are cardinal concepts in her artistic practice. Her work has been exhibited in dozens of biennials, among them the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan, Latin America and the Caribbean; the Havana Biennial; the International Biennial of Media Art, in Wroclaw, Poland; the International Biennial of Cuenca, in Ecuador; and the Latin American Biennial of Engraving in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Collazo Llorens was awarded a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and her work has been presented in multiple exhibition spaces and museums, including El Museo del Barrio, New York; The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh; the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Media Arts, Data, and Design Center at the University of Chicago; the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach (California); The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami; The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt, New Zealand; the Museo Universitario del Chopo in Mexico City; and the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico,
in San Juan.
Máximo Rafael Colón (Arecibo, 1950)
This Puerto Rican photographer is one of the most relevant of the diaspora in New York. He studied at The School of Visual Arts and has been capturing reality with analog photography for more than four decades, focusing on social justice issues, marginalized communities, activism and cultural expressions such as dance and music. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte of the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPRRP), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, The National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.), The Museum of the City of New York, and the International African American Museum, in Charleston. His photographs have been published in such media as The New York Times, El CENTRO Journal, and Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society. His work has been included in numerous books, including From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity; The Puerto Rican Movement: Voices from the Diaspora; ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York, and Images of America: Pioneers II Puerto Ricans in New York City 1948-1998. He has exhibited at the Bronx Museum, El Museo del Barrio, The Museum of the City of New York, The New York Cultural Center, Bronx Documentary Center, The Society of the Americas Gallery, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, the Museo de Historia, Antropología y Arte of the UPRRP, and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, among others.
Brenda Cruz (San Juan, 1974)
She has lived in Madrid since 1997, where she studies and works. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and obtained a PhD in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid, specializing in Painting. She has exhibited her work in numerous art museums in Puerto Rico, as well as in the Casa de América and the Calcografía Nacional, both in Madrid. She has participated in numerous biennials, among them: the International Biennial of Drawing and Engraving of Hungary; the Poly/ Graphic Triennial of San Juan, Latin America and the Caribbean; the International Triennial of Graphic Art, in Macedonia; the Miniature Arts of Yugoslavia, and the International Biennial of Racibórz, in Poland. Her work is part of several collections around the world, such as the National Museum of Cluj, the National Library of Madrid and the C.A.A. Printing Resource Centre, in Malaysia. In 2019 she presented her solo exhibition “Portrait of a (de) colonized”, at El Bastion, in San Juan, from which she was able to give a lecture at the II International Congress of Art and Identity Politics, at the University of Murcia, in the same year. Throughout her trajectory, Cruz has been able to examine the dents left in her body and in her identity by the colonial otherness.
Mónica Félix (Cayey, 1984)
Graduated from the Master’s program in Visual Arts at Columbia University, New York, and in Advertising and Public Relations from the School of Communications at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPRRP). She has studied photography and digital imaging at Pratt Institute, New York. She received the Lexus Scholarship for Artists in 2013 and was selected for the 2010 book FRESCOS. She has participated in art residencies such as: JIWAR in Barcelona, SOMA Summer in Mexico and LMCC Governor’s Island, New York. In addition to various solo exhibitions, her work has been included in numerous group exhibitions, among them: Interior Interruptions, ABC No Rio in Exile, Bullet Space; Colonial Comfort, at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts; Universos paralelos at the University of Salamanca and the Galería de Arte Francisco Oller (UPRRP); FRESCOS: Ciudadanos de Ninguna Parte, at Galería de Arte de la Universidad de Sagrado Corazón; and Standing Outside the Closed Door, 292 Gallery, New York. Her work focuses on photography, video art, installation and performance, as well as Bio art, using marine specimens found on the coasts. She has lived and worked between New York City and Puerto Rico for over twelve years.
Anaida Hernández (Mayagüez, 1954)
Graduated in Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus and with a Master’s Degree in Printmaking from the Escuela de San Carlos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma of Mexico. She was an Artist in Residence and Associate Professor at Caribbean University (Bayamón, PR). She has taught at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Cayey and Mayagüez campuses; Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico and Hostos Community College, CUNY, Bronx, NY, among others. She has produced and directed five documentaries for Puerto Rican television, government and private institutions. She received two Suncoast Emmy Award nominations in directing and producing for the documentary Dos Minutos NY about the Puerto Rican Diaspora. El Tiempo, a documentary about DiVedCo films was awarded Best Documentary 2004 at the San Juan CinemaFest. Her work has been included in numerous biennials and international exhibitions such as the IV Havana Biennial, Cuba; IV Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador; IV Havana Biennial Selection, and Ludwig Forum for International Art Museum, Aachen (Germany). Her solo exhibitions include: Juegos Ilegales, New Museum, NYC; Código Secreto, midlife retrospective, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico; and Hasta que la muerte nos separe (1994) about feminicides in Puerto Rico, at the Museo de Diseño y Arte Contemporáneo de Costa Rica, among others. She uses multiple artistic media to reflect on human rights issues.
Marta Mabel Pérez (Lares, 1968)
Cultural manager and visual artist. She obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, and obtained a Master’s Degree in Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the UPR Presidential Scholarship, the Silver Medal for Outstanding Student at UNAM, the National Endowment for the Arts award from the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and the award for Best Contemporary Media Installation, given by the International Art Critics Association, Puerto Rico Chapter. Her work has been exhibited at the San Carlos Academy in Mexico, the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, the X Bienal de Ceveira, the Bienal de Fotografía in Buenos Aires, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, The Freies Museum, The Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts, the Museo Francisco Oller, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and The Museum of Rhode Island School of Design. She has been manager of the Artist Assistance Program for twelve years, and Executive Director of the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, between 2017 and 2022. Through her visual work, Pérez comments on contemporary circumstances while narrowing the distance between the community and art.
Antonio Martorell (San Juan, 1939)
Prolific and multifaceted artist, he has conversed with all artistic disciplines and genres. He graduated in Diplomacy from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. and studied painting with Julio Martón Caro in Spain. He is an artist-in-residence at the University of Puerto Rico, Cayey Campus. He has published three books: La piel de la memoria, El libro dibujado/el dibujo librado, El velorio (no- vela) and Pierdencuentra. He is about to publish Prendas de vestir y desvestir and the commemorative edition of La piel de la memoria, published by the University of Puerto Rico, 30 years after the original edition. Recently, Editorial Destellos published Los colores de Tó. He has collaborated for thirty years with Rosa Luisa Márquez in workshops and theatrical performances, developing designs and scenery, costumes and props, both locally and internationally. With her he has starred in the radio program 1, 2, 3 Probando, on Radio Universidad de Puerto Rico, and has participated in the program En la punta de la lengua, on WIPR, with his section Para verte mejor, where he talks with plastic artists. His work is part of the collection of countless art spaces in Puerto Rico, as well as in the Museo del Barrio, in New York; the Museo de Arte Moderno de México; the Casa de las Américas, in Havana; the Museum of Modern Art, in New York; and the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington D.C.
José Ortiz Pagán (Humacao, 1984)
Multidisciplinary artist and cultural manager, he has focused his practice on issues regarding migration and its impact on the socio-political realm. He graduated with a BFA in Printmaking from the University of Puerto Rico (2009) and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia (2011). In his current practice, he employs art as a platform for cultural negotiation in transient and migrant communities in the context of healing and hope strategies. His work explores how spiritual practices can serve as a platform to strengthen communities and encourage self-management. Ortiz-Pagán has been responsible for the concept and implementation, in Philadelphia, of the Bring Your Own Project, which seeks to understand concepts of autonomy in creating community art projects in migrant communities, analyzing the role that cultural institutions can play in collaborating with groups from diverse communities. Recently, his work was awarded the inaugural Artworks Initiative grant, launched in 2021 by the Philadelphia Foundation, and the city’s Forman Initiative for the Arts, which recognizes community- based artist management in the region. His artwork has been exhibited at La Trienal Poligráfica de San Juan, La Bienal Internacional de Grabado de Taiwan ROC, La Bienal Latinoamericana del Bronx, La Revista 110 de New American Painters, among others.
Quintín Rivera Toro (Caguas, 1978)
Conceptual artist, that holds a B.F.A. in Sculpture from Hunter College (New York); a B.A. in Communications and Film Studies from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (UPRRP); an M.F.A. in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design; and a Ph.D. in Art Production and Research from the Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Spain. He has received awards and grants such as: Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (D.A.A.D.); New Genres Fellowship from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts and a fellowship to the National Academy of Design, New York. He has been an artist- in-residence at Ox-Bow School of Art; Vermont Studio Center and Mass MoCA in North Adams; the New York Times has described his work as “stunning contemporary art” and he was selected by curator Casey Fremont, in Refinery 29 magazine, as part of the Top 10 List of Rising NYC Art Stars. Since 2014, Rivera Toro has been a professor of Fine Arts at the UPRRP. His work can be found in museum collections such as the Frost Museum in Miami and El Museo del Barrio in New York City. He received a Master in Fine Arts degree in Photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the University of Puerto Rico. He has taught at several universities in Puerto Rico and the United States. His work investigates the nature of the photographic medium and reinterprets the codes with which this medium has traditionally represented reality. He also studies its relationship with architecture, light, landscape, the existential and the ontological. His solo exhibitions include Proyecto Paradiso: la isla interminable, at the Antiguo Arsenal de la Marina Española of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, and Cityscape 2.0, at Francis Colburn Art Gallery (Burlington, Vermont). His work has been selected to participate in numerous biennials, including Borders, Bienal de la Frontera, in Mexico; the Interamerican Biennial of Video Art, in Washington D.C.; the International Biennial of Cuenca, in Ecuador; the Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia; and the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial: Latin America and the Caribbean. He has received dozens of grants and awards, including second prize in the UBS Contemporary Photography Competition and a Lexus Grant for Artists.
Abdiel D. Segarra Ríos (Santurce, 1984)
Graduate of the Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico (2008), the Master’s Degree in Cultural Management and Administration from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (2013) and the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Art History and Visual Culture, from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2018). His solo exhibitions include Orfeón San Juan Bautista: sujeto y objeto (2014) at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico and Geometría de lo ordinario (2017) at Área: Lugar de proyectos. In 2019 he received the Lexus Grant for Artists with the project Things about that unbreakable (and Unstoppable) consumption pattern, presented at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. He has participated in group shows at the UPR Museum of History, Anthropology and Art, Río Piedras Campus, the UPR Dr. Pío López Martínez Museum of Art, Cayey Campus, the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture and the Miramar Museum of Art and Design. Between 2013 and 2016 he directed the Plastic Arts Program of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the National Collection and the 4th Edition of the San Juan Poly/Graphic Triennial. In 2021 he curated the exhibition[…]ENTREFORMAS at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. He is a doctoral candidate in the program of Artistic, Literary and Cultural Studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Edra Soto (San Juan, 1971)
Edra Soto is a Puerto-Rican born interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, and the co-director of the outdoor project space, The Franklin. Her recent projects, which are motivated by civic and social actions, prompt viewers to reconsider cross-cultural dynamics, the legacy of colonialism, and personal responsibility. Soto has exhibited extensively at venues including El Museo del Barrio, NY; The Momentary, AK; Museum of Contemporary Art of Chicago, IL, Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, PR and Abrons Arts Center, NY. Soto has attended residency programs at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Beta- Local, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Residency, Headlands Center for the Arts, Project Row Houses and Art Omi, among others. Soto has been awarded the Illinois Arts Council Agency Fellowship, the inaugural Foundwork Artist Prize and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, among others. Between 2019-2020, Soto exhibited and traveled to Brazil, Puerto Rico, and Cuba as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s International Connections Fund. Soto holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico.
Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez (Guayama, 1977)
Interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator based in Providence, RI. Their artistic production includes photography, painting, film/video, installation and performance art. They are interested in otherness, anarcho-feminism, galactical dimensions and obliterating colonial systems. They studied photography at the Liga de Arte de San Juan, with Frieda Medín (1993 -1995) and continued their studies in photography, sculpture, and punk rock, as a Fine Arts Painting major at University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus (1995-1998). They pursued a Photography BFA at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston (2002), where they expanded their practice into filmmaking and installation. As a curator and cultural manager, their approach is intersectional and collaborative, with their most recent tenure at Leica Gallery Boston (2016-2020). They have been a guest curator, panelist, and lecturer for various institutions such as Massachusetts College of Art, the RISD Museum, the Bell Gallery at Brown University, University of California Berkeley, and Escuela de Artes Plásticas in San Juan. As an educator, they’ve been a critic at the RISD Photography Department (2020- 2021) and is currently an adjunct professor of photography at the Roger Williams University RI. They additionally are an arts administrator for AgitArte MA/PR, a trainer/coach at MassMoca’s Assets for Artists and part of the board of directors of the Dirt Palace Public Projects RI.
Victor Vázquez (San Juan, 1950)
Víctor Vázquez graduated with a double major at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, one in Psychology and the other in Sociology. Subsequently, he pursued doctoral studies in Education and Comparative Religions at New York University. He studied art at The School of Visual Arts and at the studio of artist Jan Jurasek, both in New York, as well as at the Maine Photographic Workshop. His production has been exhibited in multiple galleries, biennials and renowned museums, such as the Museo de Arte de Lima; the Art Gallery of the American Society, in New York; the Museum of Modern Latin American Art, in Washington D.C.; the Museo de Arte de Ponce; the Havana Biennial; the ARCO Contemporary Art Fair, in Madrid; and Documenta, in Kassela. His work is part, among others, of the collection of the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico; the Museum of Modern Latin American Art, in Washington D.C.; the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico; the Wilfredo Lam Center, in Cuba; the Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Texas; and the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires. He has received, among other awards, the First Prize in Photography from Photographic Forum magazine and the Ángel Ramos Foundation Prize, awarded by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico.
Pedro Vélez (Bayamón, 1971)
Art critic and visual artist. Throughout his career he has merged diverse media such as painting, photography and virtual narrative pieces using Net Art and social media as working tools. The use of text, the intensity of color, the abundance of paint stains and a Pop aesthetic are common in almost all of his pieces. Vélez earned a B.A. in Communications from Sacred Heart University
in Puerto Rico and an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. His solo exhibitions include Nature was Healing, at Season Gallery, Seattle; and Emotional Hurricanes, Political Earthquakes, Quiet Protests, Neurotic Tweets, at Liliana Bloch Gallery, Dallas. Recent group exhibitions include Net Art Anthology: Retelling the History of Net Art from the 1980s Through the Present Day, organized by Rhizome and the New Museum, New York; Whitney Biennial 2014, New York; Sun Drenched Disasters at Myymälä2, Helsinki; and JUNTXS: The Hernández Castrodad Collection, curated by Dianne Brás, at MADMI, Puerto Rico.
Norma Vila Rivero (San Juan, 1982)
She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts from Universidad del Sagrado Corazón and a Master’s degree in Arts Administration from Universidad del Turabo (Puerto Rico). She was a finalist in the Ibero-American Photography Project Contest Saltando Muros 2013-2015. In 2017, her work participated in Debt Fair, selected by the Occupy Museums collective, at the Whitney Museum Biennial. Her project “A Metaphor Against Oblivion” received a grant from NALAC (National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures) and in 2018 was presented at The John & June Allcott Gallery, Chapel Hill University (North Carolina). In 2021 she participated in Suspended Time: Myrna Baez and Norma Vila Rivero, a duo show with Myrna Baez, curated by Cheryl Hartup at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Oregon.
In 2011 she co-founded METRO: plataformaorganizada, and between 2015 and 2018 she was director of ÁREA: lugar de proyectos. She is co-founder and director of REUNIÓN (2022), a collective project of artists’ studios and an exhibition project room, in San Juan. Her work has been presented in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Norway, Switzerland, Argentina, Mallorca, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, St. Croix and the United States; and is part of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Collection (Oregon), the Luciano Benetton Collection (Italy), the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, the Museo y Centro de Estudios Humanísticos Dra. Josefina Camacho de la Nuez (Universidad de Turabo) and the FIART Foundation (Madrid, Spain), among others.