Puerto Rico, 1955–2018 · Neo-expressionist painting

Arnaldo Roche Rabell

Arnaldo Roche Rabell (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1955–2018) studied architecture at the University of Puerto Rico and earned his MFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1984. He is associated with neo-expressionism: he worked in portrait, self-portrait and landscape at heroic scale, with a technique of his own — layers of vivid color covered in black and rubbed back with a spatula, a form of frottage, until the image emerges.