Rafael Miranda Mattei presenta - Grabaciones para un pais de memoria corta: Tracking Issues en El Schomburg

El pasado 15 de Agosto de 2025 el artista Rafael Miranda Mattei presento su muestra individual titulada Grabaciones para un pais de memoria corta: Tracking Issues en la Galeria El Schomburg en Chicago. Esta es una version agrandada del solo show que el artista presento en la Galeria KM0.2 en San Juan, PR a fines del 2024. 

La muestra presenta una coleccion de 9 impresiones digitales de unas caratulas de VHS con diferentes eventos historicos del pop y culturales de Puerto Rico, eventos que en la Isla fueron eventos de suma importancia y marcaron generaciones por el impacto visual y emocional que tuvieron cuando ocurrieron. En adicion cuenta con unos dibujos en gouche de la secuencia de la caida de Karl Wallenda.  Otra pieza que llamo mucho la atencion fueron las esculturas de los CD a una escala mayor hablando de los medios descartados y como marcaron la generacion de los 80 cuando tenias que crear mix tape CD para crear tu playlist.

Entre otras de las piezas se encuentra una escultura de color arcoiris creada con cassettes VHS descartados y 2 videos, uno contextual relacionado a los prints exhibidos y un video arte titulado Good Mourning que muestra en loop el video de buenos dias con el que los canales de television comenzaban operaciones de programacion. Este muestra un jibaron con un nino y en le trasfondo un helicoptero volando sobre el cielo con el sol de background. A su vez el himno de Puerto Rico con delay sonando lento y desafinado referenciando al progreso de nuestra sociedad.

Con un texto cuaratorial del Abdiel Segarra en ingles y espanol que ayudo a los diasporicans y a los americanos a entender la exhibicion ycrear una conversacion social, politica y economica de nuestro pais y el abuso y opresion constante del gobierno local y americano contra su gente.

La recepcion fue tremenda y llegaron muchos grupos de estudiantes de diferentes universidades para ver la muestra. La critica de arte Susan Gescheidle escribio una resena de 4 paginas para la revista mas importante de arte de Chicago llamada Chicago Gallery News tambien se publico un articulo en el periodico La Voz del Pueblo de Chicago. 

Esta ha sido una de las muestras mas completas que he tenido el gusto de presentar con Trailer Park Proyects y la segunda muestra individual del artista con Trailer Park Proyects en Chicago.

Puerto Rican Women in Arts in Puerto Rico at la Liga de Arte de San Juan

After a few curators, artists, museum directors and art lover in general asked me over and over if the exhibition would be shown un Puerto Rico, Eduardo Cabrer a good friend and artists convinced me of the importance of this specific show to be exhibited in Puerto Rico. I was a bit skeptical at first because the amount of labor and hours I have put into this exhibit was so much that I was burnt out emotionally. 

When it started out I was really inviting around 20 artists but the idea grew and the expectations grew exponentially. It turned out to become this monster unprecedented show of 200 artists.

I said yes so we were on our way to Puerto Rico to set up at la Liga de Arte de San Juan which is a very important institution and a venue where not many people get to show or work during their lifetimes. I said yes because Eduardo is a very hard worker and offered his help setting up the show which is not an easy task and the main reason I was avoiding showing this elsewhere.

After talking to La Liga director Marilu Carrasquillo whom by the way is one of the nicest human beings alive, I was comfortable to do this along with their back up. A lot of the artists in the show offered and helped with the set up which was an amazing way to get to know them beyond a piece of art. The level of happiness they had and how excited was really healing for me and I re-understood the necessity of this show being at La Liga. 

Opening was set for June 5th, 2025 at 7:00pm. Calling it the biggest success ever as an exhibition coordinator is an understatement, it was the most attended event in the history of la  Liga de Arte since it opened back in 1968. Hundreds of hundreds of art lovers and collectors lined up to come in to see the show, week after week for the whole month it was up. At the end of the run, the administration of La Liga de Arte told me it has been the most viewed exhibition ever.

The limited edition print was designed by Jesus Chu Diaz and La Serigrafica was in charge of the silkscreen printing. Editions were printed for both Chicago and the Puerto Rico shows. We also printed a 32 page catalogue designed by Jesus Chu Diaz, the catalogue also includes 5 curatorial essays by Brenda Torres, Mariel Quinones, Alexis Figueroa, Raquel Torres Arzola and writer Anjanette Delgado. 

We had great press coverage with newspaper articles in La Voz del Pueblo in Chicago, El Nuevo Dia, El Vocero and Latin American Art Magazine with a TV segment in Teleonce News (June 5th) talking about the show and its importance. 

I'm very proud to have done this exhibition and know all were happy with the final show we put out there for the enjoyment of the people and that's another big step for the female artists which have been overseen for so many decades. 

Puerto Rican Women in Arts at El Schomburg in Chicago - Opening March 7, 2025

Puerto Rican Women in Arts

You don’t have to be an art expert to know that the women in arts around the world have been left out and neglected for decades because of the patriarchate and unfortunately Puerto Rico is no exception. In my 20 years in the art scene I have been witness to the disproportionate opportunities offered to women in the art scene. 

Doing research, reading about Puerto Rican art history, little by little I have been discovering and was introduced to some of the women that have been long forgotten for unknown reasons. Innovative and creative artists that have left a mark in their time but when talking about art are not mentioned as often or frequently as their male counterparts. I understand that this is a small but necessary to render some much deserved honor to the Woman in Arts from our Island and the diaspora. 

After months of researching, reading and investigating, I was able to find and contact over 280 artists and invited them to the exhibition. Some I was not able to contact, but with today's technology and social media the database created of over 365 living Puerto rican women in arts which is the most complete assembled to date.

This is not the first time a project like this that has been done, Mari Mater O’Neill’s publication titled Mujeres Artistas Protagonistas de los ochenta about women in arts in Puerto Rico in the 80’s was a good precedent for me to continue that work, the exhibition of the Asociación de mujeres artistas de Puerto Rico at Plaza Las Americas in 1989, the documentary produced by the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico titled El legado documental de la Asociación de mujeres artistas de Puerto Rico along with the exhibition Nuestro Autorretrato Mujeres Artistas de Puerto Rico in 1993, El-Status webpage with an amazing database created by Lisa Ladner and most recently Anarquía y Dialéctica en el Deseo 1,2 & 3 at the MAC and the 2015 article Viva la resistencia: Women artists in Puerto Rico and outside both by Raquel Torres Arzola are some of the building blocks for this exhibition. 

With little resources and no budget but with eagerness to do justice to the women in arts who deserve recognition , Trailer Park Proyects in collaboration with El Schomburg has organized a once in a lifetime exhibition where we will show over 150 living and working Puerto Rican Women in Arts in the same walls under the same roof and it will happen here in Chicago.

To celebrate these artists, we selected March which is women’s month to present this exhibition which opens Friday March 7th, followed by an artist talk on March 8th the official international day of women, when we will sit down and have a discussion of Puerto Rican Woman in Arts throughout history and to talk about the challenges and stepping stones the industry has put on some of the participating artists.

In order to properly document this amazing unprecedented event we are trying to raise funds to create and publish a catalogue including the names of all participating artists and their information along with the other we could not contact or that couldn’t participate and create a document that will be used as an educational tool for generations to come as the directory for the women artists of Puerto Rico and the diaspora all with the help of Raquel Torres Arzola, Maria Josefina Melero, Anjanette Delgado, Aisha Perez, Melissa Ramos, Brenda Torres, Mariel Quinones and other collaborators and colleagues.

We will post photos of the exhibition and artwork during opening week.

Generation NEXT 2024 @ El Schomburg

For my first exhibition in Chicago, I joined forces with El Schomburg Gallery and director and friend Brenda Figueroa-Torres. 

As much Puerto Rican artists that we produce and with a fair share studying at the SAIC, the Puerto Rican diaspora has been taught that art is more about culture so their idea of art is patriotic and culturally driven with most artwork having to have our flag, the sun, our palm trees, El Morro a national landmark, political figures, sports idols, our coqui and other specific regional symbols and characteristics. They have not been exposed to contemporary art or much art from the mainland, most born and raised local artists with roots attached to PR, not really showing our reality but their love for the Island and the nostalgic thoughts of PR and their dream of going and staying one day.

I took on the task of trying to organize an exhibition where we could showcase the new younger generation of contemporary artists that are going through the ranks in the International and Puerto Rico art scene. So I selected 12 of what I believe will be the best artists from this generation and will be the artists representing our Island in the near future and for years to come.

The exhibition will run from December 6, 2024 up to January 19, 2025. We will also have an artist talk with artist Oscar Melendez Rivera (you can watch it in our Instagram Account @trailerparkproj on December 7th at 2:00pm

The exhibiting artists are:

Kivan Quinones

Jotham Malave

Dany Pabon

Gabriela Nieves

Saki Sacarello

Oscar Melendez Rivera

Alberto Zayas

Javier Moreno

Laura Colon

Steven Rivera

Kroniko

Being this a new venture in an unknown market, I'm exhibiting 10 works of each artists and keeping my statement of accesible art for everyone to be able to afford a piece of art, all works will be $100 or less. In a great variety of mediums, we have are exhibiting monotypes, drawings, paintings, silkscreens, woodcuts, cyanotypes, mix media collages, etc... 

I'm beyond exited for this exhibition as it marks a new era of a series of shows I'm planning on showing bringing to Chicago in collaboration with El Schomburg.

See you there

With Curator Alasik Zamam

 

 

Interviewing Artist Oscar Melendez Rivera

Alberto Zayas

Gabriela Nieves

Angel Borroto

Dany Pabon

Kivan Quinones

Oscar Melendez Rivera

Laura Colon

Jotham Malave

Steven Rivera

Javier Moreno

Saki Sacarello

Kroniko

Pintura Contemporanea de PfknR 2024

After a short hiatus in our exhibition program, Trailer Park Proyects organized its most ambitious exhibition up to date, Pintura Contemporanea de PfknR 2024. The metric for selection of the artists invited were

1. Living working artist

2. Exhibited a painting at a show in 2024

3. Turn in their best work at their discretion, I only asked a selected few for a bigger work but what they turned in was up to the artist.

Researching the 1960's Puerto Rico art scene I found that a lot of the exhibitions were titled Pintura Contemporanea (Contemporary Painting). It was so simple and they didn't have any pretentious titles . The works were the most important thing, no one to tell artists what or how to paint, no curators with fancy writing to defend the exhibition, it was all about the painting and not about anything else. I loved that simple idea and created this 30 man group show to honor painting over all else.

The participating artists are: Omar Velazquez, Jose Lerma, Angel Otero, Daniel Lind, Gamalier Rodriguez, Rogelio Baez, Melvin Martinez, Pedro Velez, Aby Ruiz, Bobby Cruz, Jonathan Torres, Jotham Malave, Rafael Miranda, Admin Torres, Nel Figueroa, Natalia Sanchez, Kivan Quinones, Lilliam Nieves, Angel Borroto, Dany Pabon, Javier Moreno, Roberto Silva, Alberto Zayas, Emanuel Torres, Efren Candelaria, Ada del Pilar, Javier Orfon, Carmelo Fontanez, Carmelo Sobrino, Jose Rosa, Eduardo Cabrer, Javier Moreno and Nelson Sambolin.

With limited space due to a change in the gallery showroom which left me with half the original floor plan, I had to make this show with 30 paintings of all sizes, themes, styles and other variables to work and to be shown coherently. Some deserving artists were left out because of the change of wall space it was initially thought out but I will include them in a future show.

Ron del Barrilito sponsored the events opening night as well as my second home Publica with the great Naima Rodriguez. My dearest friend Omar Velazquez was in charge of the exhibition design which ended up being a miracle on walls. Opening night on November 19, 2024. Turned out it was much more than we expected, over 500 people showed up that night and over 1,000 people in total for the whole week. 

Among the visitors we received were Art Collectors Ignacio Cortes, John Belk, Veronica Viso, Chilo Andreu, Dr. Cayo Arias, Glady Alonso and Rashid Molinary, Jose Hernandez Castrodad, Roberto Fortuno, Antonio Garcia and Mae Colon, Dr. Raul Vila, Gabriel Fuentes, Maria Emanuelli, Dr. Gilberto Arias y Dra. Lia Negron, Rafael Disdier, Javier Romero, Guillermo Gonzalez Colon, Ian Rivera Morales, Fernando De Zengotita, Dr. Carlos Torres, Erika Medina, Johan Vazquez, Christian Wolpert Gaztambide, Jaime Sanabria, Curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero, Curator Aisha Perez, Curator Flavia Marichal, Curator Mariel Quinones,  Curator Abdiel Segarra, Art Consultant Amanda Alonso, Art Consultant Adlin Rios, Art Critic Manuel Alvarez Lezama, Gallerist Francisco Tito Rovira, Gallerist Raquel Perez Puig, Gallerist Izam Zawahra, Filmmaker Tito Roman, Arthop creators Tony Rodriguez and Danny Baez, Musician Ile, Musician Rodrigo Cuevas, Actress Marise Tata Alvarez and many others. Thanks for coming to the show.

As part of the new initiative Arthop Week 2024 we decided to make sure to leave a dent in the local art scene history with a show that exhibited the best of the best in painting and that we accomplished. The pop-up show ran from November 18-24, 2024 at Publica Espacio in Santurce, PR

Planning the next show and getting ready for Arthop 2025

Exhibition Flyer designed by Jesus Diaz

Angel Borroto 

Emanuel Torres, Lilliam Nieves, Javier Orfon, Eduardo Cabrer, Melvin Martinez, Nelson Sambolin, Ada del Pilar, Efren Candelaria, Rafael Miranda, Jose Rosa, Jose Lerma, Carmelo Fontanez, Daniel Lind, Carmelo Sobirno

Kivan Quinones, Jose Lerma, Nel Figueroa, Admin Torres

Angel Otero, Alberto Zayas, Aby Ruiz, Pedro Velez

Natalia Sanchez, Rogelio Baez, Roberto Silva, Omar Velazquez

Bobby Cruz, Gamalier Rodriguez, Javier Moreno, Jotham Malave, Jonathan Torres, Dany Pabon

Group of artists Juan Climent, Angel Borroto and Jotham Malave

Group photo artists with me

Group Photo

Bea Echevarria and Ada del Pilar

Aby Ruiz, Maria Calbeto, Pedro Velez

A few friend including Dr. Eduardo Rodriguez, Hector Gonzalez

Group photo (L toR): Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) curator Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero, Omar Velazquez, Jotham Malave, Aby Ruiz, Angel Borroto, Nel Figueroa, Roberto Silva, Admin Torres, Dany Pabon, Ada del Pilar, Javier Orfon, Pedro Velez, Emanuel Torres

Lifetime friends Jose del Rio and Marise Tata Alvarez

Juan Carlos Lopez Quintero and Marianelly

Maria Calbeto, Jose Lerma and Io Carrion