Gamaliel Rodriguez

Gamaliel Rodriguez turns to the immediacy of his own home in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico in a series of large- scale paintings created in the past year. Continuing his interrogation of the Puerto Rican landscape, Rodriguez’s paintings, which foreground the failure of infrastructure, allude to a dystopian future that is the byproduct of extraction, experimentation, military occupation, and a failed project of modernization. Likewise, as this new series of paintings foregrounds, the artist’s work stems from a sustained, committed, and attentive daily engagement with the area which he inhabits. In 2021, Rodríguez had a solo exhibition at MASS MOcA Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art which featured LA TRAVESÍA / LE VOYAGE, a 60-foot long drawing Inspired by his experience of North Adams and its post-industrial landscape during his time in the museum’s studio residency program.Rodríguez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1977. He received his BA from the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2004; an MFA from the Kent Institute of Art and Design in the United Kingdom in 2005; and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2011. He has participated in numerous residencies and fellowships such as The MacDowell Fellowship in 2012 and The International Studio & Curatorial Program Residency in 2013. He has exhibited his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia; the Museum Fine Arts, Boston; Domus Artium (DA2), Salamanca, Spain; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan; and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York. He lives and works in Puerto Rico.