Descripción de la Exposición
The Museum of San Juan presents the work of the sanjuanero artist Arnaldo Roche in the exhibition, In Blue: Signals After Touch (Frontages). The exhibition includes works that have never been exhibited in museums or other exhibition spaces in Puerto Rico. Gathering 24 works of this well-known artist, this show provides an interesting approach to his work. They return to Puerto Rico after being presented at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in Spain. Curated by Omar Pacual Castillo, the opening reception will be held on Thursday, December 8th, 2016 at the Francisco Oller gallery at the Museum of San Juan.
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and formally trained at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, Arnaldo Roche is one of the prominent contemporary artists in the iberoamerican context. The unique formal language of the artist is visible in the 24 works present in the exhibition, where the color blue has been given a main roles in each of his works. His creations reflects maturity and an existential and humanist perspective on art, they delve in different themes related to: religion, the human being, mythology and nature. It is a work charged of expressiveness and intensity, which feeds off of historical and personal events. Similar to anyone who questions the meaning of existence before God, Roche faces art in an open dialogue with great faith, which according to him saves him from madness, the past, sadness or pain, providing the argument for a work that transcends and greater than the artist. As an islander, his work turned monochromatic after the traumatic events of hurricane Katrina and the tsunami in Asia, both, pushed his work to an aesthetic change. Since then the color blue represents a symbolic, historic and epic aspect to his work.
Arnaldo Roche is known for his dominion of drawing and frottage, a technique incorporated in his work in a particular way. The artist covers with canvas or paper people, faces, objects and rubs them achieving a reproduction of the subject beneath. The viewers will have the opportunity to see a video in the theater of the museum which illustrates this technique, making the artists process accesible to the public. Many of his works are of great format like, El sueño de la razón, 2009 one of the main pieces of the exhibition placed in the center of the gallery and of similar format, Luego del tsunami, ¿Dónde está tu Dios? and ¿Sabes dónde habita el todopoderoso?, both from 2005. The exhibition also incorporates Intolerance, 2014 a triptych of great format which consists of a rubbing of the work El Jardín de la Intolerancia, 2002 a splendid piece from the Fraternos series. Intolerance, 2014 is a frottage of his own work where the subject matter presents sibling rivalry, by making the work monochromatic Roche, gives every part of the composition equal importance in this new piece. The exhibition also has several self portraits and a series of collages made with oil and wood.
Exposición. 13 dic de 2024 - 04 may de 2025 / CAAC - Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo / Sevilla, España
Formación. 01 oct de 2024 - 04 abr de 2025 / PHotoEspaña / Madrid, España
