Collection

Painter, graphic and digital artist, and professor. He pursued his education in painting, drawing and color theory with Domingo García in the Campeche Workshop‑Gallery, and with Lorenzo Homar in the Printmaking Workshop of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture. He founded the Bija Workshop (1970‑1975) with René Pietri and Nelson Sambolín, which generated a remarkable production of posters with political or ideological commitments. He received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1987 from the University of Puerto Rico and, upon completing his master’s degree in fine arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1990, he became a professor at the Department of Fine Arts of the University of Puerto Rico. From a very young age, he has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in local and international museums and galleries. In 2017 the Museum of the Americas presented the retrospective exhibition “Rafael Rivera Rosa: An Extended Glance”. He works mainly in large‑format abstract and Expressionist paintings and drawings, but he also has incorporated narrative and figuration into his work, especially in small‑format. His most narrative work is reflective and presents imaginary mythological characters that seem to allude to concerns of a social and political nature.