CHEMI ROSADO SEIJO (b. 1973)

Education

1997
BA Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico

Residencies

2002 - 2004
Residency, Fortaleza 302, San Juan, PR
2005
Residency, Art in General, New York, New York, USA
2006
Residency, CAC7, PS, Trinidad
2007
Residency, Wising Art Centre, Bourn, Cambridge, UK
2014
Residency, The Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, Illinois, USA

Exhibitions (Selection)

2014
XIX Bienal de Arte Paíz, Guatemala City, Guatemala
La Perla Portrait Kite Festival, La Perla, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico
Beyond the Supersquare, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, New York, USA

2013
Panamañana (La piscina/skate/plaza del Figali), Ciudad de Panamá, Panamá
173 Days in the Tropical Forest Latitude 18º 23’ 26, 88” N. Longitude 66º 22.93” W. BO. Maricao, Vega Alta P.R., Annet Gelink Gallery’s Bakery, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Chemi Rosado-Seijo en colaboración con..., Sanatorio El Pilar Habitación 203, Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad Capital, Guatemala
Puerto Rico: Puerta al Paisaje, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, San Juan, Puerto Rico
My Brain is in My Inkstand: Drawing as Thinking Process, Cranbrook Art Museum, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Living as Form (The Nomadic Version), The 4th Anyang Public Art Project, Anyang, South Korea
On the Media, El Cerro Leftovers & 365 Days in the Tropical Rain Forest: Studio Work From the Past 3 Years, Roberto Paradise, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2012
Art/Community/Life, Petrach Tikva Museum, Israel
The Hive (3ra Trienal Poligráfica de Puerto Rico), San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Way In, Popular Center, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico

2011
Living as a Form (Social Engage Art), Creative Time, New York City, New York, USA
El Cerro en El Cerro, Naranjito, Puerto Rico
Monopatín, 787 Studios, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2010
Muestra de (S) Obras, Chemi Room, Santurce, Puerto Rico
Ultra Punyeta, Proyectos Ultravioleta, Ciudad Capital, Guatemala
Bienal de Pontevedra, Villagarcia, Spain

2009
2da Trienal Poligráfica de Puerto Rico, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, San Juan, Puerto Rico
The Endless Renaissance, Bass Museum, Miami, Florida, USA
Tropical Trailers, Circa Art Fair, San Juan, Puerto Rico

2008
Bibliote-Kart, Cataño Bay Area, Puerto Rico
From Maricao to NYC, Magnam Projects, New York City, New York, USA
En sus Marcas…, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueño, Sala de las Artes de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico

2007
Bourn To Be Wild (Fanzine), Bourn, England, United Kingdom
Habitación Hotel, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico
FACE to FACE, Daros Space, Zurich, Switzerland

2006
Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba
ev+a 2006 – give (a)way, Limerick, Ireland
Liming Still Pan Set, CAC7, PS, Trinidad & Tobago

2005
Manhattan Skateboartists Map Project, Art in General, New York City, New York, USA
Sin título, colectiva, Canada Gallery, New York City, New York, USA
Prague Biennale 2 (expanded painting / acción directa), Prague, Czech Republic

2004
Plain Sight, Bloomberg Space, London, United Kingdom
Island Nations: New Art from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico & the Diaspora, RISD Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
Produciendo realidad, Prometeo Association of Contemporary Art, Lucca, Italy
Files, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, León, Spain
None of the above, Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut, USA

2003
24/7, New York / Vilnius, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
No pasa un día... Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Ciudad de México, México
A Given Circumstance (gestures in situ), Arcadia University Gallery, Glenside, Pennsylvania, USA

2002
La historia sobre ruedas (studio version), Puerto Rico ‘02 [en ruta], Fortaleza 302, San Juan, Puerto Rico
El Cerro, Puerto Rico ‘02 [en ruta], Comunidad El Cerro, Naranjito, Puerto Rico
2002 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York, USA

2001
El diario / Contra bombardeos de información, ARCO 01, Madrid, Spain

2000
Tapando para ver, Fundación Joan Miró, Barcelona, Spain

Bibliography (Selection)

En sus marcas… The Fine Arts Program of the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (San Juan, PR. 2008)
ev+a 2006 – give (a)way. Gandon Editions. (Ireland. 2006)
Prague Biennale 2. Giancarlo Politi Editore. (Prague, Czech Republic. 2005)
Files. Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León. (Spain. 2004)
None of the Above. Real Art Ways. (Hartford, Connecticut. 2004)
Review: Literature and Arts of the Americas. (Issue 68, Vol. 37, No. 1, May 2004)
Whitney Bienal 2002. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York. 2002)

Collections (Selection)

RISD Museum, Rhode Island, USA
Museo Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico
Daros Collection, Zurich, Switzerland
Bererdivin Collection, Santurce, Puerto Rico
Artists Pension Trust Collection, New York City, New York, USA

BIO

Born in Vega Alta, Puerto Rico, Chemi Rosado-Seijo graduated from the painting department of the Puerto Rico School of Visual Arts in 1997. In 1998, he worked with Michy Marxuach to open a gallery that transformed into a not-for-profit organization presenting resources and exhibitions for contemporary artists in Puerto Rico. In 2000, Rosado had his first solo show at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, including interventions on billboards around the city. Since 2002, he has worked with residents of the El Cerro community, a poor neighborhood south of San Juan, to present public art projects, workshops and other community initiatives. In 2006, he inaugurated La Perla’s Bowl, a sculpture built with residents of San Juan’s La Perla community that functions as both a skateboarding ramp and an actual pool. Since 2009, Rosado-Seijo has been organizing exhibitions in his apartment in Santurce, creating a center for meeting and exchange in the Puerto Rican contemporary art scene.

STATEMENT

My work consists of community-based interventions linked to and suggestive of the site where they have been developed. Mostly, it reflects my interest in socially engaged art and collaborations by juxtaposing architecture with the urban landscape, art with social action, and art with its history.

Often my art works, projects or interventions are set and/or developed on the communities that have inspired said works, projects or interventions. This, in turn, aims to involve the people living in the communities with the actual (art) project. This “interweaving” of the communities that have inspired my work intends to pay homage to the people and the site where they have formed their communities. Likewise, my work aspires to exalt and/or draw attention to the already existing beauty of the site through the creation and depiction of a hyperreality that would bring together people from different social classes with one another, bureaucratic institutions and cultural agencies with those whom they are supposed to serve and/or affect, and those who otherwise wouldn’t come together.