Carlos Rolón (b. 1970) is known for a multidisciplinary practice spanning painting, sculpture, installation, and social engagement. His work employs a wide range of media to explore themes of craft, ritual, beauty, and spirituality, and their complex relationships to art history and institutional frameworks. Drawing from his Puerto Rican heritage, Rolón examines issues of inclusion, aspiration, and cultural identity.
His practice is informed by childhood memories and observations of how Caribbean households adapted to American middle-class ideals homes adorned with color, texture, and pattern as expressions of belonging and longing. These influences form the foundation of a hybrid visual language that extends across painting, sculpture, social practice, and site-specific installations. His work bridges public and private space, inviting reflection, dialogue, and community engagement.
Rolón’s work addresses cultivated environments, social barriers, and postcolonial histories, producing works that oscillate between melancholy and exuberance, celebration and regret.
He has held solo exhibitions at institutions including Dallas Contemporary, Dallas; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan; the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and CAM: Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis.
Recent solo projects include Threads of Resurgence at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Humboldt Park Stories at Dragon, Crab and Turtle, St. Louis, The Great Migration at Hexton Gallery, Aspen, and Gold, Secular and Sacred at Maison d’Art, Monaco.
Recent group exhibitions include Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing at The Norton Museum of Art, Florida, BOLD at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and 25! at Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.
His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Marta Herford Museum, Germany; Museum Het Domein, The Netherlands; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Museo del Barrio, New York; Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Canary Islands; Oakland University Art Gallery, Michigan; and the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.
In 2007, Rolón represented Ukraine at the 52nd Venice Biennale and is a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for Painting and Sculpture.
His work is included in numerous public collections, among them the Bass Museum of Art, Miami; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; the City of Chicago Public Art Collection; Daegu Art Museum, South Korea; Museo del Barrio, New York; Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan; the Museum Het Domein, The Netherlands; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, Ukraine.
Additional recent acquisitions include the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, the Rockford Art Museum, Illinois, and the Pensacola Museum of Art, Florida.
Rolón has participated in artist-in-residence programs at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen; the Joan Mitchell Foundation, New Orleans; Instituto Buena Bista, Curaçao; and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom.
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