Arnaldo roche rabell biography sampler

The late, great painter Arnaldo Roche Rabell, who some authors call "Roche-Rabell," is a gifted storyteller in the exploration of self-identity.

As a Puerto Rican who eventually studied and lived in Chicago, Roche Rabell was conscious of the way in which his paintings created a "third space," a bridge between Caribbean and "Estadounidense," United-Statesian.

Like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roche Rabell worked in a mode akin to hip-hop: his large paintings sweep you off your feet.

Alongside the epic scale and immersive process of his work, Roche Rabell was able to secure a place for his art in the exhibition world, which had excluded Puerto Ricans for political reasons until very recently.

Partly because Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, the fact of Puerto Rico's uniqueness, including its influential brand of Afro-indigenous Caribbean culture, may not be understood, or even welcomed, by a U.S. audience. If Puerto Ricans weren't distin