The Pérez Art Museum Miami has acquired drawing by the Puerto Rican artist Chemi Rosado-Seijo


Installation shot of Chemi Rosado-Seijo 's Untitled #1 (2017) 
from the series: One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy One Rides (2017) 
Photo: Raquel Pérez Puig and courtesy of Embajada Gallery

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (Pamm) has acquired a large work on masonite by the Puerto Rican artist Chemi Rosado-Seijo of tracks left by skateboards from the Nada fair . Untitled #1 (2017) is from the artist’s series One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy One Rides. The purchase, from the San Juan gallery Embajada, was made possible by the Nada acquisition gift fund for Pamm, which the fair’s organisers launched this year. “We are very excited for the partnership with Nada, and even more delighted to acquire Chemi’s work—an artist we have been following for a long time. It was a unanimous decision,” says María Elena Ortiz, a curator at Pamm.

History on Wheels (1999-Present), consisting of works inspired by his ongoing engagement with skateboarding. Chemi began skateboarding as a teen and upon entering art school he quickly drew parallels between what he was learning in art history courses, architecture history lessons, and his skateboarding practice; an investigation that developed into the oeuvre which continues today. A series of masonite skate ramps and canvases will be on view, their surfaces exposing the scratches made through its use, evoking aesthetics of abstract expressionism.

One Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy One Rides, 2017, installation view at Embajada

Also, on view will be a selection of Rosado-Seijo’s books on wheels sculptures made with books relating to art theory, history, politics, and economics mounted with skateboard wheels to the back covers echoing a theoretical and visual analogy between art, knowledge and skateboarding's history. Each book on wheels contains interventions of stickers, inserts, and provocative plays with the text, making each one of them a unique work and artist book.

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 2000, Rosado had his first solo show at the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona. He inaugurated the ongoing project El Cerro in 2002, working with residents of the El Cerro community, to present public art projects, workshops and other community initiatives. Seijo has participated in numerous exhibitions and biennials including The Whitney Biennial (2017, 2002), Havana (2015), and Pontevedra (2010), Prague (2005). In 2011 he received the Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, in 2013 he participated in the Creative Time Summit with a presentation on his socially engaged practice, and in May of 2015, Rosado-Seijo was granted The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artist as Activist Fellowship for El Cerro, honoring artists pursuing ambitious creative projects with a social purpose.

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