Three Puerto Ricans at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno

Arnaldo Roche-Rabell, Ángel Otero and Ramón Miranda-Beltrán present personal exhibitions of their work at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno (CAAM) for the first time. Inaugurated on March 6, the exhibitions will remain open to the public until June 7, 2015 in the exhibition halls of CAAM, an institution under the Area of Culture, Historic Heritage and Museums of the Town-Council in Gran Canaria directed by Larry Álvarez. With these exhibitions, the CAAM becomes the first European museum to organize solo shows by these three Puerto Rican creators educated in the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago in the US. The exhibition entitled "Signals after Touch" by Arnaldo Roche-Rabell is on display on level 0 of the CAAM. Curated by Omar-Pascual Castillo, it consists of 26 works loaned for the duration of the show by the Galería Walter Otero in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In recent years, Arnaldo Roche-Rabell (Hormiguero, Puerto Rico, 1955) has developed a unique aesthetic vocabulary based on the superimposition of layers of paint in which the color blue plays a central role. In some of his works, Roche-Rabell uses human models that he places under paper or canvas, highlighting their silhouettes through the artistic technique of frottage. Curated by art critic Christian Viveros-Fauné, the project entitled "Ascending Painting" by Ángel Otero is exhibited on level 1. The show presents a selection of 16 recent works by the New York-based artist. Otero's work stands out for his paintings and for the singular process he employs to conceive them. He practices a type of process art that combines painting and assemblage. With this approach, Otero creates "painting skins" by pouring pigment on glass plaques which he later removes, allows it to dry and attaches to the canvas. To complete the process, he adds more oil painting and other elements such as spray paint, resin, and silicon. Ángel Otero (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1981) is an artist searching for a permanent reformulation of art by establishing a dialogue with history. The work of this creator is characterized by the recovery of the historic and artistic memory. Also curated by Omar-Pascual Castillo, the exhibition entitled "We Are Dust" by Ramón Miranda-Beltrán is the third of the exhibitions of contemporary Puerto Rican art. It is displayed on level 3 of the CAAM. The project consists of a total of seven large in situ installations. Ramón Miranda-Beltrán (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1982) is a young artist interested in exploring social, historic and cultural themes in his artistic production. He uses analog photography and concrete to create large sculptural installations that approach themes such as the concept of State, enacted laws concerning public liberties, racial tensions, violence and the excessive use of firearms in the US; all themes present in the seven works shown in the exhibition. Miranda-Beltrán created these works with concrete slabs—fabricated in the museum—and photographs superimposed on them. Some of the photos were taken in different places in the US while others were extracted from images published in periodicals. Each of the three personal projects was accompanied by a publication edited by CAA and available at the gift shop in CAAM, the library or the museum's documentation center. The publications include texts by Omar-Pascual Castillo, Barry Schwabsky, Lilliana Ramos, Christian Viveros-Fauné, Matthew Schum, Octavio Zaya, Ionit Behar and Elvis Fuentes. More information about the exhibitions is available at: Departamento de Comunicación, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, CAAM. Tel: 928 311 800 (ext 216-213). comunicacion@caam.net