Mirada Extendida

Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theater is proud to announce the first U.S. exhibition of recent digital works by Puerto Rican master painter, printmaker, and graphic designer Rafael Rivera Rosa. Raised as a migrant child in Spanish Harlem, NYC, Rivera Rosa’s career spans five turbulent decades with dozens of provocative solo and group shows, and has left an indelible mark on younger generations of artists. His works run from the figurative to the abstract, with deep and recurring concern for social, political, and creative experience. On view at Pregones in The Bronx will be a selection of Rivera Rosa’s innovative large format digital prints from the last decade. A special screening of the documentary Mirada Extendida, produced for the eponymous 2017 retrospective at Museo de Las Américas in Viejo San Juan, is scheduled in conjunction with the Bronx opening.

Artist Bio: Painter, printmaker, digital artist, graphic designer, and teacher Rafael Rivera Rosa studied with the artists of the “Fifties Generation,” among them Domingo García at the Campeche Studio and Gallery and Lorenzo Homar at the Graphic Arts Workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. In 1970, Rivera Rosa, René Pietri, and Nelson Sambolín founded Taller Bija, which produced an impressive output of political and protest posters. He completed his BFA at the University of Puerto Rico and his MFA at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and in 1990 he began to teach at the University of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico School of Plastic Arts. Since 1995 he has been artist-in-residence at Cooperativa de Seguros Múltiples de Puerto Rico.

Film Synopsis: Mirada Extendida (Documentary, Puerto Rico, 2017) traces the creative journey of Rafael Rivera Rosa from his childhood in New York City to the present day. It covers formative years with the Puerto Rico Division of Community Education (DivEdCo) and Graphic Workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture; relationship with other salient arts figures; and subsequent development of a distinguished career and body of work. The film features interviews with Rivera Rosa, fellow artists, and art critics. In Spanish with English subtitles, 45 minutes. Directed by Juan Carlos García Padilla.

Both the artist and the film director will be present on July 26. The film screening is co-presented in partnership with Bronx Film Wednesdays and Prime Latino Media. Mirada Extendida is a featured event of Pregones/PRTT’s #MásPorPuertoRico initiative.