Tucked in the corner of the Dillon Art Center is the magnificent de Menil Gallery, which currently houses the Undercurrents exhibition: a collection that illustrates snapshots based on the life and observations of its artist, Edel Rodriguez. Upon entering the gallery, a large drawing depicting a white, wooden ship filled with people rocking through restless waves stands out—a representation of Rodriguez’s themes of immigration and change.
Edel Rodriguez is a Cuban-American artist born in 1971 in Havana, during the peak of the Cold War. Rodriguez was raised in El Gabriel, a small farming town south of the Cuban capital. In 1980, Rodriguez and his family immigrated to the United States during the Mariel boatlift. He spent his teenage years in Miami, Florida and later studied at the Pratt Institute in New York City. After graduating, Rodriguez became an artist, illustrator, and arts director at Time magazine. The work displayed in the Undercurrents exhibition is art that Rodriguez has created independently over the last fifteen years.
The name for the gallery, Undercurrents, is analogous to Rodriguez’s journey from Cuba to the United States. He describes his motivation for the name: “On a boat, there are ‘undercurrents’ that can take you in different directions. You can’t see them, but eventually, they can take you in a direction that you weren’t meant to go. Today, there are these undercurrents that can affect society.” Through the artwork displayed in the gallery, Rodriguez hopes to reveal such hidden controversies to the public.
This theme is evident in the artwork across the exhibit. The walls of the De Menil gallery are lined with Time magazine and book covers commenting on issues ranging from Neo-fascism in America to technology’s influence on our daily lives. His work “Agent Orange” perhaps embodies this theme best. The painting captures the controversy surrounding the former United States presidency and its influence on the public, depicting contentious symbols surrounding the Trump administration.
However, not all of Rodriguez’s art surrounds controversial political issues. Instead, many of his works are reflections of his life: “The more personal works look back on my life, like images that I grew up with both in Cuba and Miami: anything that helps tell my life story and where I come from.” Displayed near the back of the gallery are original ink drawings from his graphic memoir, Worm, a reference to the name former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro gave emigrating Cubans, which tells the story of his childhood and journey to America.
Rodriguez wants observers to take away a few important ideas from his illustrations. “One of the major things that I want to express is that artists should be free to make whatever they want,” he says. “Sometimes they create pieces that are controversial and that people may disagree with. At the end of the day, art is something that is meant to make you think. Hopefully, these pieces make people rethink their mindsets and come out with a new awareness of society and current events.”
The Undercurrents exhibition will be on display in the de Menil Gallery until April 5.
