Rutas de Nuestros Caminos
Routes of Our Paths
Jorge Luis Rodríguez, Marcos Dimas, Elsie Deliz, & James Reyes
Curated by Grandma Collective
We are thrilled to present Rutas de Nuestros Caminos (Routes of Our Paths), a group exhibition highlighting some of the most exciting Puerto Rican contemporary artists in NYC! We will be exhibiting a wide range of talent that includes legends like Jorge Luis Rodríguez and Marcos Dimas as well as undiscovered talents like Elsie Deliz and new stars in the community such as James Reyes. CAfED and Grandma Collective take us on a journey that shows Puerto Rican artists' prolific and continuing impact in New York City. The gallery will be showcasing a collection of works including pieces made in the 70’s that were originally shown at the famed Just Above Midtown Gallery and have been exhibited at MoMA, as well as pieces finished this year in a studio in the Bronx. Rutas de Nuestros Caminos (Routes of Our Paths) gives a view into both the past and the future while celebrating the present.
Jorge Luis Rodríguez
Originally from Puerto Rico, Jorge Luis Rodríguez arrived in New York City in 1963 at the intersection of the Minimalist and Optical Art movements, incorporating these elements into his works. Rodríguez began his career as a two-dimensional artist, but over the years began experimenting with sculpture. He enrolled in the School of Visual Arts where he met his mentors George Trakas, Brice Marden, and Louise Bourgeois. From there, Rodríguez began working in Harlem and SoHo where he created work for public installation. Rodríguez’s work emphasizes issues related to the representation of Black and Latin American culture and he frequently travels around the world conducting research to aid him in his artistic practices. Today, Jorge Luis Rodríguez has retired from his position as a college professor and continues to focus on his own work, which ranges from large scale installations to wall hanging sculptures. Rodríguez currently lives and works in New York City and has had works shown at institutions such as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, and the MoMA.
Marcos Dimas
Marcos Dimas was born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. His family migrated to New York City in the 50's. He attended public school and graduated from the High School of Fashion Industries. Marcos received a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree from the School of Visual Arts. While a student there, he joined the Art Workers Coalition, an arts and advocacy organization. He was artist in resident and exhibited at the Society of Friends of Puerto Rico's Galeria Hoy. In 1969, he participated in the exhibition " Contemporary Puerto Rican Artists" at the Brooklyn Museum. His role in advocacy and art led to becoming a member of the Museo del Barrio's advisory board with Rafael Ortiz Montanez. Dimas, also, co-founded the Puerto Rican Workshop, El Taller Boricua.
Marcos has been a pioneer and innovator in the New York City alternative arts movement. His work combines Pre-Colombian Taino symbols and images with contemporary modes of abstraction and figuration to create a fusion between past and present ways of seeing. Dimas" work falls into the Caribbean tradition of surrealist abstraction. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. In Germany, "The Other America". In Cuba, "The Second Havana Biennial". He lectured in Seoul Korea on the alternative art movement happening in New York City. A graduate of the W.N.E.T Film and Television School, he went on to produce for the program 'Realidades'. He won a CAPS (Creative Artists Public Service) award for the film "Towards a Collective Expression".
Currently, His work is in various collections, that include Museo del Barrio, N.Y.C., Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, San Juan, P.R., The Snite Museum, South Bend, Indiana and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. As a community advocate, he has co founded The Heckscher Conservancy with Boys Harbor and the Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center. He directs the Taller Boricua's artists in the schools residency program for East Harlem. He is a current recipient of the Joan Mitchell's "Creating a Living Legacy Fellowship" Award. With a career spanning nearly five decades, Marcos Dimas is a pioneer and an innovator in the New York Alternative Arts Movement. He maintains an active position with the Taller Boricua, NYC as an artist, curator and executive director.
James Reyes
James Reyes is Puerto Rican American artist who lives and works in the Bronx, New York. Reyes’ works are directly inspired by his cultural and social environment as well as the dream world. Using intensely gestural and occasionally chaotic brushstrokes, splashes, drips, sprays, and scrapes, Reyes conjures figures both fully rendered and surreal, creating portals into his subconscious and to the dream world. Reyes’s process is reactive and intuitive using broad action packed gestures as a cryptic map to pull out the characters and symbols, allowing the abstraction of the underpainting to act a guide into his world. Reyes received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. He has had two solo exhibitions at Ki Smith Gallery and was an exhibiting artist at SCOPE Art Show in 2023.
Elsie Deliz
Elsie Deliz is a Puerto Rican born mixed media artist and jewelry designer. She gets her artistic inspiration from nature and the social environment.Her use of mixed media techniques allows her to experiment and create a variety of free form art pieces. Elsie graduated from the High School of Art and Design and studied at The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. Her works have been exhibited at various venues such as The Taller Boricua Galleries,The Bronx Library Center,El Barrio’s Artspace PS109, Art Lives Here Brown Stone Gallery, The Arsenal Gallery at Central Park and The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance. She has also participated in several group exhibition with The Taller Boricua Printmaking Workshop in collaboration with the Instituto de Cultura de Puerto Rico and the Museo de la Historia de Ponce,Puerto Rico. Elsie is an Artist in Residence at The Red Oak Center in New York City and was a SU - CASA artist in Residence in 2022 and again in 2024.Elsie is a member of The Taller Boricua Printmaking Workshop,Art Lives Here, CaFed and PRIDA (Puerto Rican Institute for the Development of the Arts).