Beyond the Canvas: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico

Exhibition Website

Apr 26 2017 - Jul 9 2017

Spanning several generations, five Puerto Rico-based artists Zilia Sánchez (b.1926), Julio Suárez (b.1947), Arnaldo Roche Rabell (b.1955), Pédro Velez (b.1971), and Elsa María Meléndez (b.1974) have each developed a process-driven approach to painting that challenges the notion of the canvas as a flat surface.

Creating three-dimensionality through the action of pulling, rubbing, folding, slashing, ripping, or warping the canvas, these artists mine the tensions, both sensual and sublime, of this current critical moment in Puerto Rican history. Whether psychological, topographical, sociopolitical, or cultural, their provocative treatments critically reflect on the island’s “super crisis” in works that suggest rupture, tension, and escape.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

  • Painting
  • Latin American
  • Contemporary
  • Caribbean
  • Zilia Sánchez
  • Julio Suárez
  • Arnaldo Roche Rabell
  • Pédro Velez
  • Elsa María Meléndez

Exhibition Venues & Dates