Freddy Rodríguez: Early Paintings 1970-1990

Since the 1970s, Freddy Rodríguez (b. 1945) has created a consistent body of work adopting former Hard-edge, Geometric Abstraction, and Minimalist aesthetics, later expanding upon expressionist vocabularies to convey his Afro-Dominican heritage, as well as the transnational dialogues between the Dominican diaspora and the homeland.

Born in 1945 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, Rodríguez moved to New York City in 1963 after fleeing Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship (1930-1961), a period marked by severe social and political upheaval. Being drafted into the U.S. army in 1966, Rodríguez resided between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico before settling again permanently in New York City in 1968. Here he proceeded to study painting at the New School for Social Research, and textile design at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Presenting a highly abbreviated view of Rodriguez’s oeuvre, the exhibition features an array of his 1970s and 1980s paintings, including works from his Paradise (1985-1988) and his Cimarrón (1985-1988) series, alongside a selection of his never before exhibited collages revealing Rodríguez’s multifaceted and varied practice.