Dennis Mario Rivera
San Juan, P.R., 1957
San Juan, P.R., 1957
Printmaker, painter, illustrator, photographer and musician. He studied at the National Center for the Arts in San Juan (1976) and the School of Visual Arts of San Juan (1978). In 1983, he started the “Museum Without a Roof Exposed to Sun and Water” project in Old San Juan, an annual outdoor installation of paper artwork that adheres to the walls of the buildings on San Sebastián Street in Old San Juan. He participated in the Berlin Biennial (1984), in the Mini Print International in Cadaqués, Barcelona (1988), and in numerous exhibitions in America and Europe. In 1990 the Boinayel Gallery of Santo Domingo –based in Puerto Rico– awarded him a scholarship that allowed him to study in France for three months. The National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., among others, has recognized his work. His work exposes themes of island politics, often with sarcasm, and celebrates the countryside and the urban landscape. It also depicts the influence of music, in particular the Afro‑Caribbean rhythms, an area that the artist develops in parallel with his visual arts on the island and abroad.
"I come from music. Contrary to my colleague painters, whose education is usually academic and use the inherited color of other painters and other schools, the color that you see in my work is the color of music. I learned the chromatic scales for clarinet (instrument that I also studied), and as a painter could do something that actual musicians could not do themselves; see the color in music (because musicians do not see, but interpret the notes). In that sense I say music lead me to paint".
Source: de Laosa, Marilú. De la música a la pintura: Dennis Mario Rivera.
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“Dennis Mario exhibe en el Smithsonian”. EL Nuevo Día (San Juan, PR), 21 de septiembre de 1995, pp. 110.
Aponte Gómez, Marjorie. “Una década de jazz y arte en armonía”. El Nuevo Día, Espectaculos (San Juan, PR), 27 de mayo de 2000, pp. 114.
Covas Quevedo, Waldo. “Dennis Mario, la gran sorpresa”. El Nuevo Día, Espectáculos (San Juan, PR), 15 de junio de 1999, pp. 90.
Fernández Miralles, Elsa. “Entregan Coquíes de Oro de la UMA”. El Vocero, Sociales (San Juan, PR), 21 de julio de 1998, pp. E8.
Guadalupe Pérez, Hiram. “Un espectáculo innovador”. Primera Hora (San Juan, PR), 12 de agosto de 2000, pp. 10B.
Moreno, María Cristina. “Estreno a golpe de congas”. El Nuevo Día, Magazine (San Juan, PR), 10 de agosto de 1997, p. 2.
Rivera, Dennis Mario. “A sonar los tambores a sonar”. El Nuevo Día, Revista Domingo (San Juan, PR), 28 de julio de 1991, pp. 12-15.
Torres Torres, Jaime. “Desnudos jazz y pintura con Dennis Mario”. El Nuevo Día, Espectáculos (San Juan, PR), 22 de junio de 2000, pp. 110-111.
“Dennis Mario Rivera”. Hispanic (Estados Unidos), junio-julio 1995, pp. 44-46.
Rodríguez Burns, Francisco. “Mario Brother”. San Juan, junio-julio de 1997, pp. 58-61.