current exhibition
Roberto Paradise is pleased to present “On the Media, El Cerro Leftovers, & 365 Days in the Tropical Rain Forest: Studio Work From the Past 3 Years”, an exhibition by Chemi Rosado-Seijo. An opening reception will be held on Wednesday, December 18th, at 7pm; exhibition runs through Saturday, February 8th.
With a focus on wit and community development, Chemi Rosado-Seijo creates interdisciplinary projects that link architecture to the surrounding urban landscape, bridge work with social action, and reunite art with its history.
In “Historia sobre Ruedas” (“History on Wheels”), his 2005 project with Art in General, Rosado-Seijo mapped Manhattan from the perspective of a skateboarder, re-drawing the city in terms of its skating sites. For another ongoing project, “Tapando para Ver” (“Covering to See”), which also took the shape of a book, Seijo covered up parts of text and images from newspaper clippings with charcoal leaving only specific words, suggesting that all language might be a form of manipulation and drawing attention to the degree to which commercial information is controlled by the media. Since 2001, the artist has worked with the inhabitants of El Cerro, in Puerto Rico, painting all of the houses in different shades of green. Over several years, and through negotiation and collaboration with the residents of the community, over 100 houses have been painted.
Parallel to these ongoing projects and in his hometown in the northern tropical forest of Puerto Rico, Rosado Seijo left pre-prepared white canvases in the forest, registering the passing of time. Humidity, animals, insects, larva, rain, sun and other elements left their mark. After some time, the artist eliminates the loose parts with a small paint-brush, whilst adding a white edge all around the canvas. Here, he adds a text describing the process of the painting endurance and its references to other artists. For instance “120 days in the tropical Forest with Julio, Andy, Zilia, Lucio, Ana and Maria. Bo. Maricaeo VA PR” refers to both the place where the artist left the blank canvas, and its time frame. The names refer to Julio Suarez, Andy Warhol, Zilia Sanchez, Lucio Fontana and marihuana, who have influenced the artist for this work.
Rosado-Seijo has participated in numerous biennials including the Whitney (2002), Prague (2005), Havanna (2006), and Pontevedra (2010). Recent exhibitions include “My Brain Is My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking and Process” at the Canbrook Art Museum in Detroit, “Art/Community/Life” at the Petrach Tikva Museum in Israel and “173 Days in the Tropical Forest” at Annet Gelink Gallery in Amsterdam.
In 2011 Chemi Rosado-Seijo received the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant; this year the artist became a Creative Capital grantee and gave a ravishing presentation at the Creative Time Summit in NYC. His work is featured in “Art Cities of the Future: Contemporary Avant Gardes”, just published by Phaidon Press. Since 2009, Rosado Seijo has been organizing exhibitions in Chemi’s Room, his apartment and studio in Santurce, creating a center for meeting and exchange in the local contemporary art scene.
Chemi Rosado-Seijo was born in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico in 1973.
