The Museum at Guild Hall Surveys the Works of Rafael Ferrer

Written by Howard Wilkinson Thursday, 15 December 2011 22:22

East Hampton,New York.- The Guild Hall is proud to present "Rafael Ferrer: Contrabando", on view at the museum through January 16th 2012. The show celebrates Ferrer’s many significant and diverse artistic contributions and continues the recognition he so richly deserves following his well-received one person show at the El Museo del Barrio in New York City. Guild Hall will feature works from the early 70s to the present, including new pieces and there will be a 12-page, full-color bilingual catalogue that will include the curatorial essay by guest curator Esperanza León,  Ferrer’s biography, and acknowledgements “Rafael Ferrer is an acute observer of past and current events.  He accurately and justifiably comments on all that surrounds him, ‘smuggling’ information through his artwork with an attentiveness to detail, fact, sentiment, and opinion that results in stimulating, insightful, and inciting visual and conceptual statements,” says Esperanza León, guest curator.  “Contrabando” furnishes a renewed opportunity for complicity with and regard for the artist.”

The show represents important moments in Ferrer’s career, with a focus on his return to painting. Key figurative canvases, such as transitional portraits from the early 80s, some reflecting the artist’s musical background, and large art historical homages like “Virgin Isle” and “Painting: Jungle Jam” are included, along with an impacting wall installation of ‘faces’ painted and drawn on paper bags. There is a current installation of small blackboards titled “Contraband” that will be exhibited for the first time. “This last piece, along with several gouaches and works on paper created within the last decade, powerfully illustrate Ferrer’s satirical juxtapositions of word and image. Also included are sculptures that borrow the motifs and subjects captured in his two-dimensional works. There is a galvanized steel kayak and a selection of calabash pieces, as well as “Museo Rodante que se quedó en La Parguera” (2004) featuring three of the five wooden maquettes created for a public art commission in Puerto Rico (which has been the subject of controversy because of its unexpected removal and relocation).

These three-dimensional works ultimately quantify the breadth of Ferrer’s ability to express himself--poetically and sardonically--in various mediums. Rafael Ferrer was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in 1933. He studied at Syracuse University for two years and then at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, with the Surrealist painter, Eugenio Fernández Granell who was  in exile from Spain during the Franco dictatorship. In 1954 Ferrer met seminal members of the Surrealist group in Paris, who were good friends of Fernández Granell, including André Breton and Wifredo Lam. He left the University before receiving a degree and moved to New York City to play drums professionally with Afro-Cuban groups though he continued to paint privately.

In 1959 he returned to Puerto Rico, finally dedicating himself full-time to being an artist. He moved back to the United States in 1966 and began showing regularly in New York. He has taught at the Philadelphia College of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, the School of Visual Arts, New York, and has been a visiting critic and lecturer at many universities throughout the United States. Twice, in 1972 and 1989, he was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and was awarded a Guggenheim Grant in 1978, a Pew Fellowship Grant in 1994, and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant in 1998. In 2010 he received the Annalee and Barnett Newman Foundation Grant recognizing him for his independence and individuality. He has exhibited widely in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe, and is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Museum. He currently resides in New York City and Greenport, Long Island.


For 76 years, Guild Hall has been an important center for artistic excellence, creativity and community partnerships. The recently renovated galleries, education center, and the John Drew Theater are prime venues for diverse and superior productions. Now with state-of-the-art capabilities, the very best directors, producers and performers will continue to share the space with community and student groups. When you enter the rejuvenated theater, you'll immediately notice the difference - comfortable seating, an excellent sound system, and great sight lines from every seat in the house. Your new experience will reflect how much those at Guild Hall cherish its audience as well as its artists. Guild Hall is an arts, entertainment, and education center for the community. Its primary focus is to inform, inspire, and enrich their diverse audiences by presenting programs of the highest quality in the visual and performing arts, to collaborate with artists of eastern Long Island, to foster the artistic spirit and to provide a meeting place for all.  Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.guildhall.org

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