Beyond the Canvas: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico

Spanning several generations, five Puerto Rico-based artists Zilia Sanchez (b.1926), Julio Suarez (b.1947), Arnaldo Roche Rabell (b.1955), Pedro Velez (b.1971), and Elsa Maria Melendez (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.