SAN JUAN, PR.- Walter Otero Contemporary Art announces the opening of the exhibition, Arnaldo Roche recent work, on view from November 7, 2013 - January 26, 2014.
Arnaldo Roche (b. 1955, Santurce), is one of Puerto Rico’s renown masters of contemporary art, whose work is considered neo-expressionist. Roche Rabell began his formal artistic studies at the Luchetti School and continued at the School of Architecture at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras where he studied architecture, design, and illustration. (1974-1978). He moved to Chicago in 1979 and enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) where he earned a B.F.A. and an M.F.A.
Its emblematic work is characterized by the creation of self-portraits and the use of stroke rubbed.
In this exhibition, the artist presents a series of what he calls “blue events” where these "frottage" are created with layers of oil placing under his paintings objects and human bodies whose images and structures appear on the other side of the fabric. These structures and forms become the departure of ambitious and complex associations, metaphors and images of a close-minded presence showing the psychological state of the individual who lives his contemporaneity almost as a survivor.
"My work presents the simplicity of everyday life... "I paint for the believers... is the reality of the simple man that attracts me in my work." A man can be given a structure and it will fly… two wheels and it will go very far”, stated Arnaldo Roche.
Arnaldo Roche has had an extensive career: exhibited in museums around the world including The Art Institute of Chicago, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and The Rubell Family Collection, in Miami FL.
His impressive trajectory including awards and exhibitions, from leading venues worldwide like (1998) Award Winner, Primera Bienal Internacional, Venezuela , (1991) Award in the Visual Arts 10, (1982) James Nelson Raymond Traveling Fellowship, Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, (2010–09) Paint Made Flesh, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville Tennessee, (2008) Recent Works, Spinnerei, Leipzig, germany,(2008) “Brotherhood/Hermandad,” , Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago,Illinois, (2001) Humor and Rage, Caixa Fundation Cataluña, Barcelona, España, (1997) Absolut Art Biennial Invitational, Los Angeles, California, (1996) “Arnaldo Roche-Rabell: The Uncommonwealth,” (Curateda by Robert Hobbs), Anderson Gallery -Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond; Museum of American Art -Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Nevada Museum of Art, Reno; Krannert Art Museum- College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, (1992-93) Latin American Artists of the XXth Century, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Nueva York.
Numerous works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'La Ley: Sin paños ni lágrimas' sold at Phillips New York, Upper East Side 'Under the Influence' in 2013 for $116,500.
His work has been featured in Modern Painter, 'Art Review; Art That Escapes The Tyranny Of 'Isms'' written by Benjamin Genocchio for New York Times in 2005, among others.
Roche continues to create work that explore the complex and dual issues of identity and belonging.
The artist is represented by Walter Otero Contemporary Art (WOCA) is situated on Ave. Constitución #402, San Juan (Puerta de Tierra), Puerto Rico. The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. or by appointment.
