Elio Rodriguez was born in 1966, and lives and works in Spain. His practice is engaged with the system of judgments about a person, a culture or phenomenon. Tapping the prism of Caribbean popular culture, its underlying humor and clichés formed about the culture, he builds witty and sensual works that seemingly incarnate that reality, and subtly and continuously question it. The ambivalence of genres is key to understanding the essence of his work. Rodriguez conceives a game of illusions with the viewer using the language of form and surface — and ultimately reveals traces of doubt in the identity of a concept or an image. His practice encompasses painting, installations, sculptures, prints, ceramics, and soft sculpture interacting with chosen objects, his style referring to marks of Caribbean popular craftwork.
In 1994, he completed his arts studies at Havana’s Higher Institute of Art (ISA). He has been awarded Art Residencies at Hutchins Institute, Harvard University, at Mattress Factory Art Museum, Pittsburg, and given lectures at Harvard University, NYU, and Swarthmore College. His artwork has been displayed in several solo and group shows around the world. He is in public collections such as National Arts Museum, Cuba; Jersey City State University; Foundation AMBA, Brazil; Hainaut City Hall, Belgium; Peggy Crafitz Collection; Center For Cuban Studies, New York; Von Christierson Collection, London; Shelley & Donald Rubin Collection, New York; W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University.