Visiting Artists Program | Adrián Román

Adrián Román's work is informed by issues of race, migration, and identity while exploring both the personal and historical memory of the two disparate worlds he inhabits: the tropical landscape of Puerto Rico and the overpopulated cityscape of New York. His practice combines drawing, painting, and sculpture within immersive installation environments composed of objects collected from different communities, from salvaged wood and window frames to historic artifacts and vintage photographs. The resulting environments can fill an entire wall or an entire room, and often incorporate sound and aromatics, drawing upon the history and memory embedded in the objects. Román is interested in the continuity of time, and in how these interventions may bring these living histories forward to the present.

His work was included in the 2017 Whitney Biennial as part of Debtfair, and has been shown at such venues as El Museo Del Barrio, Taller Puertoriqueño, UNC's Ackland Art Museum, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of South Texas, Tacoma Art Museum, Smithsonian Museum National Portrait Gallery, Philadelphia's African American Museum, Sala Municipal De Exposiciones De San Sebastián, and the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. He has participated in residency programs at Google and Facebook.

The student-run Visiting Artist Program brings an outstanding roster of local, national and international artists to PAFA each semester. Through a series of public lectures, critiques, and workshops, the program exposes students and the public to a range of artistic approaches, as well as fostering discussion of contemporary art and ideas.

Adrián Román, Caja De Memoria Viva III: Sobreviviente, Digna Quiles. (2018). Charcoal on wood (outside), Found objects and audio (inside), 48”(h) x 49”(w) x 48”(d).