American, b. 1933
Rafael Ferrer was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 1933. He attended the Staunton Military Academy in Virginia, where he cultivated an interest in music. In 1951 and ’52, he studied at Syracuse University, then returned to Puerto Rico in 1953, resuming his education at the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras. He studied painting and literature with exiled Spanish Surrealist Eugenio Fernández Granell, who introduced him to the Surrealists in Europe on his first visit there in 1954. In Paris, Ferrer met André Breton and developed a close friendship with Wifredo Lam, who exerted a profound influence on the young artist and fueled his passion for Afro-Caribbean music and culture. On his return to Puerto Rico, in 1953, Ferrer continued painting and became a professional musician. In 1955 he moved to New York City, where he found work as a musician in East Harlem.
Ferrer’s relationship to Puerto Rico is a significant theme in his work, his repeated migrations between the island and the cities of the Northeastern United States continually, surfacing in abstract and narrative forms. He first exhibited his art in Puerto Rico in 1961, but he felt his collaged paintings, environments, and Minimalist sculptures were misunderstood, prompting him to move, in 1966, to Philadelphia, where he began teaching at the Philadelphia College of Art. In the later 1960s, he shifted toward Conceptual and process-oriented actions and environments, in which he combined ephemeral, industrial, and natural materials.
In the 1970s, Ferrer made narrative installations including a series of hanging kayaks and a set of drawings on maps and navigational charts, both projects suggestive of voyages.
He returned to easel painting and figuration in the 1980s, depicting the culture of the tropics in ways that undermine stereotypical imagery of the region. Ferrer’s re-engagement with painting lasted for nearly two decades, during which he lived and worked part-time in the Dominican Republic.
Ferrer is the recipient of several grants, including three from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972, 1975, and 1989). He lives and works in Long Island, New York, and Vieques, Puerto Rico.
Ferrer’s relationship to Puerto Rico is a significant theme in his work, his repeated migrations between the island and the cities of the Northeastern United States continually, surfacing in abstract and narrative forms. He first exhibited his art in Puerto Rico in 1961, but he felt his collaged paintings, environments, and Minimalist sculptures were misunderstood, prompting him to move, in 1966, to Philadelphia, where he began teaching at the Philadelphia College of Art. In the later 1960s, he shifted toward Conceptual and process-oriented actions and environments, in which he combined ephemeral, industrial, and natural materials.
In the 1970s, Ferrer made narrative installations including a series of hanging kayaks and a set of drawings on maps and navigational charts, both projects suggestive of voyages.
He returned to easel painting and figuration in the 1980s, depicting the culture of the tropics in ways that undermine stereotypical imagery of the region. Ferrer’s re-engagement with painting lasted for nearly two decades, during which he lived and worked part-time in the Dominican Republic.
Ferrer is the recipient of several grants, including three from the National Endowment for the Arts (1972, 1975, and 1989). He lives and works in Long Island, New York, and Vieques, Puerto Rico.
