Since first coming to prominence in 1985 with inclusion in two exhibits at The Art Institute of Chicago, Arnaldo Roche has gained a worldwide reputation for his intensely expressionistic paintings.

Although Roche’s art is always personal, there is a political subtext to much of his paintings. His focus on the instability of self has a correlative in the artist’s identity as a Puerto Rican: at once colonial subject and citizen of the world’s most powerful country. From this dual vantage point, Roche asserts that to be a colonial is to be in perpetual doubt and, in this sense, his is a geo-political form of Post-Modernism.

The current exhibition, Paint: Surviving Insanity, includes new large-scale works exploring the genealogy of madness, and the redemptive power of painting.  Roche continues a powerful dialogue with Vincent Van Gogh, which he first explored in his 2003 exhibition, Fraternos, at the Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.

The artist’s many exhibitions include: Hispanic Art in the United States, Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C., 1987; Latin American Art of the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1990; Selections from the Collection, Hirshorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., 1994; and El Humor y La Rabia, Fundación Caixa Catalunya, Barcelona, 2001.

Arnaldo Roche’s paintings can be found in the permanent collection of major institutions worldwide, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; Fundación Cultural de México, México D.F.; Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.