A Grain of Salt | Un Grano de Sal A new body of work by Fernando Ruíz Lorenzo


Decolonial Moment | Momento Decolonial,” 2015. © Fernando Ruíz Lorenzo / Artist Rights Society, 2023. Exhibited in 2017 at La Galería at the Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, Boston.



ELM Foundation | The Boiler is proud to present A Grain of Salt | Un Grano de Sal, the newest work from New York based artist, writer, and curator, Fernando Ruíz Lorenzo. Constructed from materials of industry and trade, composed iconography, and compelling texture, these paintings, and installations paired together with the industrial nature of the gallery located between the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, with their history of Puerto Rican migration, offer a seamless continuation to Ruíz Lorenzo’s exploration of Puerto Rico and its diaspora.



A Grain of Salt | Un Grano de Sal, a new body of work by Fernando Ruíz Lorenzo, is a series of paintings and installations with solar salt, styrofoam, acrylic, and aerosol paint. Ruíz Lorenzo’s work merges the history and political narratives of Puerto Rico’s colonial relationships to Spain and the United States. By creating a concise visual language, a process of visual decolonization and resistance, the work is a vehicle for critical self reflection. Through a visual dialogue expressed through what he calls “marginal iconographies, decolonial moments, and crystallizations,” he captures the colonial discourses and dialogues between New York City and Puerto Rico. Through Ruíz Lorenzo’s artistic process, he conceptually addresses past and current abuses of colonial, legal, and economic power with the combined effects of climate change and natural disasters on the archipelago.

About the Artist

Fernando Ruíz Lorenzo was born of Puerto Rican parentage in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan and raised in the High Bridge Section of The Bronx. His work has been exhibited at the International Center of Photography (New York), The California Museum of Photography (Riverside), Photographic Resource Center (Boston), and Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. Since 2007, Ruíz Lorenzo has exhibited a series of visual artworks exploring Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Such exhibitions include Emperial - Since 1898 (2007), El Pintor Del Pueblo:

Homenaje a Rafael Tufiño (2008), Guánica (2010), Escritura at Reem Kayden Gallery, Bard College (2011)), La Ciudad Letrada (2012), Skybridge Gallery, The New School, Oratorio (2013), Diáspora (2014 in El Viejo San Juan), Aquí Se Habla (2015), and Caña Brava (2015). Ciudadano at La Galería, Villa Victoria Center for the Arts, Boston (2017). His studio is based in the Upper Hudson Valley and New York City. 

A Grain of Salt | Un Grano de Sal runs from February 25th – March 11th. Gallery hours are from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm, Tuesday to Saturday. The exhibition is held at The Boiler located at 191 North 14th Street, Brooklyn, New York.

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