Rafael Trelles

After receiving a bachelor's degree in Art from the University of Puerto Rico, Trelles enrolled as a graduate student at the University of Mexico in Mexico City, where he eventually earned a doctorate. In 1985 he moved to the Canary Islands in Spain to develop the key work that would envision the art making process of his later works in regards to alchemy, mysticism, magic and suspicion. Though he never quite understood the true value of Dada against the sound factories of the industrial revolution, Trelles over-seeded the figurative aspect of Surrealism in resemblance to printmaking by Dutch Painters during the Baroque Age to clear cut some of the tensions behind Pop Art and New Realism in regards to 1963's Soirée. His small connotations to the world of ghost hinduism and buddhist antiGothics is highly denoted throughout much of his paintings with dust etching nograffiti and squashed expressionism. Some of his later works resemble the antithesis to David Carson's Fotografiks, paintings with a graphic attitude, and Takashi Murakami's public New York City exhibitions from Japan's Exploding Subculture.

Figurations on Plastic (Figuraciones sobre Plástico in Spanish) is an exhibition by two artists in the field of post-modern surrealist figuration, Rafael Trelles in conjunction with María Antonieta Ordóñez. According to Manuel Alvarez Lezama, Trelles and Ordóñez have accepted the challenge to turn the human figure into poetry by using plastic as their support to let us see ourselves on plastic, an everyday reality for millions in this technology-oriented society of ours.[1]

Rafael Trelles was born on April 27, 1957 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He began studying painting at the age of eleven, under the guidance of Spanish painter Julio Yort. In 1980, Trelles obtained a Magna Cum Laude bachelor's degree in Art at the University of Puerto Rico. In 1983, he traveled to Mexico where he pursued graduate studies at the Universidad Autónoma de México. Today he lives and work in Puerto Rico.

• 2007 Performance Self-portrait after Paret, Letter to a President. Plaza de la Convalecencia, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico.
• 2007 En concreto, urban graphics in Vieques, Portfolio presentation. Conde de Mirasol Museum, Vieques, Puerto Rico.
• 2006 En concreto, urban graphics in Vieques, Portfolio presentation, Raúl Juliá Theater, Puerto Rico Art Museum.
• 2006 Performance En Concreto, urban graphics in Mayagüez, Parque de los próceres, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
• 2006 Performance En Concreto, urban graphics in Ponce Art Museum, lateral sidewalk of Ponce Art Museum. Art Circle Project, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
• 2005 Installation and performance Natividad, Sin Título Art Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• 2005 Performance En concreto, urban graphics in Vieques, Navy restricted Area in Vieques, Puerto Rico.
• 2005 Exhibition En Concreto, urban graphics, Conde de Mirasol Museum, Vieques, Puerto Rico.
• 2005 Exhibition En Concreto, urban graphics, Galería Botello, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.
• 2004 Exhibition En Concreto, urban graphics, Sacred Heart University Santurce, Puerto Rico.
• 2003 Painting exhibition Poliedro, Puerto Rico Art Museum, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
• 2001 Painting exhibition "Crónicas del Asombro" Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 2000 Visitas al Velorio (Visits to the Wake), San Juan Museum, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 1999 Painting exhibition, Elite Fine Art Gallery, Miami, FL USA
• 1997-1998 Paisaje Secreto (Secret Landscape) Painting exhibition, Ponce History Museum, Ponce, Puerto Rico.
• 1997 Painting exhibition, Elite Fine Art Gallery, Miami, FL USA.
• 1996 Visitas al Velorio (Visits to the Wake), Ponce History Museum, Ponce, Puerto Rico
• 1993 Painting exhibition, Botello Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 1992 Drawing exhibition, Contemporary Art Museum, Centro Europa Building, Santurce, Puerto Rico
• 1991 Visitas al Velorio (Visits to the Wake), University of Puerto Rico Art Museum
• 1990 Painting and drawing exhibition Renaissance III Gallery, New Jersey
• 1989 Drawing exhibition at Fleming House, 15th Coffee Festival, Yauco, Puerto Rico
• 1989 Drawing exhibition, Humacao College Library, Humacao, Puerto Rico
• 1988 Afroamérica (Afro – America), drawing exhibition, University of Puerto Rico Student Center, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
• 1988 Drawing exhibition, Hermes Bookstore, Condado, Puerto Rico
• 1987 Un camino hacia la magia (A Road to Magic), drawing exhibition, San Juan Art League, San Juan, Puerto Rico
• 1986 El tarot universo (Universal Tarot), painting exhibition, El Aquisitio Café and Theater, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Island, Spain
• 1985 Painting, drawing, and lithography exhibition, Mime Laboratory Building Autonomous University of Mexico City, Mexico
• 1983 Painting, drawing, and lithography exhibition, Guatibirí Gallery, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
• 1982 Painting, drawing, and lithography exhibition, Guatibirí Gallery, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
• 1979 Drawing exhibition, Francisco Oller Gallery, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico

He has been awarded with the first prize for best exhibition in contemporary media from the Puerto Rico Art Critics Association; the “Emeritus Award” for the excellence of his artistic career from the National Endowment of Puerto Rico, as well as the Art Medal from the Puerto Rican Association of Artists with UNESCO.

• Francesco Clemente

• Proyecto 'ace
• UNESCO
• the hidden JEWELS of Rafael Trelles