Yelaine Rodriguez (b.1990) is an AfroDominicanYork artistic scholar, educator, independent curator, cultural organizer, and writer who merges her creative language and academic research within her practice. As a visual artist, Rodriguez conceptualizes wearable art, sculptures, and site-specific installations drawing connections between her research on Black cultures in the Caribbean and the United States. She received her BFA in Fashion Design from Parsons School of Design | The New School (2013) and her MA in Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Museum Studies from New York University (2021). She is currently an Adjunct Instructor at The New School and NYU. 

Rodriguez's curatorial projects include "Radical Elegance" at Longwood Art Gallery At Hostos (2021), "Afro Syncretic" at NYU (2019-2020), "Resistance, Roots, & Truth" at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (2018), and "(under)REPRESENT(ed)" at Parsons School of Design | The New School (2017). From (2015 - to 2018), Rodriguez founded La Lucha: Dominican Republic and Haiti, One Island, an art collective exploring Dominican-Haitian relations through exhibitions, artist panels, and interactive conferences. Residencies include the Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship from the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (2017), Wave Hill Van Lier Fellowship (2018), The Latinx Project Curatorial Fellowship at NYU (2019), and Bronx Museum AIM Program (2020). 

Rodriguez has exhibited in various venues internationally, such as ESTAMOS BIEN: LA TRIENAL 20/21, El Museo del Barrio's (NY) first national large-scale survey of Latinx contemporary art, UNTITLED Art Fair, Photoville, Mexic-Arte Museum, American Museum of Natural History, and Wave Hill in the United States, El Centro Cultural de España and Centro León Biennial XXVII in the Dominican Republic, SurGallery & Critical Distance Centre for Curators in Canada, Wereldmuseum in The Netherlands, and La Escocesa in Barcelona, Spain. Rodriguez's works feature in CNN, Artsy, EnFoco, Hyperallergic, Vogue, Aperture, and Elle Magazine. Her writing has appeared in ARTnews and academic journals like Latin American & Latinx Visual Culture. 

Photography by: Elia Alba, La Joya (Yelaine Rodriguez), 2019Contact Yelaine for more info

Photography by: Elia Alba, La Joya (Yelaine Rodriguez), 2019

Contact Yelaine for more info

My Caribbean magical realism portraits underscore my academic research and artistic language. In my practice, I integrate colonial archival materials with Afro syncretic religions and Black narratives during slavery via a critical fabulation approach that reassesses our viewpoint on the representation of Afro-derived beliefs within history. I construct intricate costume garments, crowns, masks, and sculptural objects that I document through photography and video in detailed staged portraits that provide new meaning to Afro syncretic religions in the Caribbean and the United States. My works engage with historical significance sites, reimagining the past through elaborate garments against the backdrops of Caribbean architectural ruins that generated trauma and violence during slavery.

As an Afro-Dominican United Statesian artist and part of the African Diaspora, themes of displacement and identity formation often circulate in my artistic practice. My work also lives as multi-media site-specific installations named Digital Thrones. These are composed of CRT-TVs projecting photos or videos concerning the deity or loa in honor. My art is also syncretic, remixing and recontextualizing history, like coupling Haitian Vodou with Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba or photographing a Haitian loa in a Cuban landscape. While transporting Shango onto a preserved Siwanoy trail in The Bronx speaks to the displacement of BIPOC peoples and becomes a contemporary intervention that inspires alternative futures. These works highlight the Caribbean and the United States' shared history. They memorialize African diasporic roots, rejecting the negative stereotypes and challenging dominant beauty standards while bringing forth the knowledge that was suppressed or lost by colonization.

(2023) National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) Funds for the Arts,

(2023) Kahn | Mason SIP Fellowship | efa Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NYC.

(2022) Brandywine Workshop & Archives, Artists-In-Residency Program, Philadelphia, PA.

(2022) TEDx AUCollege, I Am A Living Archive, Amsterdam, Netherlands,

(2020) Bronx Museum Artist In the Market Program (AIM)

(2019) The Latinx Project Curatorial Fellow at NYU

(2018) New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellow, Wave Hill

(2017) Innovative Cultural Advocacy Fellowship, Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute

 

EDUCATION

New York University, Graduate School of Arts and Science, New York, NY  | Master’s Program, Latin American & Caribbean Studies / Museum Studies, Fall 2021

Parsons the New School for Design, New York, NY | Bachelor in Fine Arts, Fashion Design, 2013

  • Altos de Chavon, La Romana, Dominican Republic, Summer 2012

  • Central St, Martins, London, England; Fashion Design, Spring 2011

  • Parsons Paris, Photography, Summer 2010

TEACHING EXPERIENCE Adjunct Professor

  • Rutgers University Department of Latino & Caribbean Studies, 2023

  • Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, The Department of Photography and Imaging (DPI), 2020

  • Parsons The New School for Design, MFA Textile, New York, NY, 2022

  • Parsons The New School for Design, New York, NY, 2017

  • Parsons Pre-College Academy, New York, NY, 2013

  • Altos De Chavón, La Romana, Dominican Republic, Summer 2013

CURATORIAL PROJECTS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED SCREENINGS

ART FAIR

  • Laguna Art Fair, Mexico City. 2024

  • Clavo Art Fair, Mexico City. 2024

  • Shango | Digital Throne, UNTITLED Art Fair, Miami, Florida. 2022

  • The Price of Memory, CAFA Barbados Fair, Barbados, 2018

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

2023

2022

  • So Far And Yet So Close, Edge Zones Art Center, Miami, Florida. 2022

  • Free As They Want To Be: Artists Committed To Memory, FotoFocus: National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH. September 2022

  • Hair Power, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, NL. July 2022 - 2023

 2021

 2020

2019

  • Bronx Latin American Art Triennial, Boricua College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY. 2019

  • The Repeating Island, Bard College. 2019

  • Herritual, The Goat Farm Art Center, Atlanta, GA. 2019

  • Spring 2019 Invitational Exhibition, JVS Project Space, New York, NY. 2019

  • Ezili Dantor, Freedom & the African Diaspora: An Immersive Installation and Performance, AFH, Bronx, NY. 2019

  • Waiting For The Garden Of Eden, White Box Harlem, New York, NY. 2019

2018

2017

  • Yemaya (One Step Beyond), American Museum Of Natural History, NY, 2017

  • Vibras NYC: Afrofuturo, Starr, Brooklyn, NY, 2017

2016

  • kNOWing: Recent Works From Coronado Print Studio (2016)

  • Borimix: Borinqueya: An Evolving Travesty, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, LES, 2016

  • Bronx Latin American Art Biennial, Loisaida Inc. Center Gallery, LES, 2016

  • Living In My Skin, Rio Gallery III, Sugar Hill, NY, 2016

  • Caribbean Carnival: Tradition Of Artistry, Visions Of Change, Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center, Folklife Galleries, New Jersey, 2016

  • Sankofa: Reflections On Cultural Heritage & Shared Humanity, Wheaton Arts & Cultural Center Gallery Of Fine Craft, NJ. 2016

  • Between Worlds – In A World, Rowan College Gallery, New Jersey, 2016

  • Afrofuturism Conference 2016: #Black is Viral, Parsons School Of Design, Manhattan, NY, 2016

  • Boogie On The Boulevard, The Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY, 2016

  • Metamorphosis, [re]New Lots, Brooklyn, NY, 2016

  • BxNow, Temporary Storage, Brooklyn, NY, 2016

  • Rendezvous Art, The Well, Brooklyn, NY, 2016

2015

  • Harvest/Hærfest, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY, 2015

  • Yeah, That’s What She Said, Baby Castle, Manhattan, NY, 2015

  • Bronx Fashion Week, Old Bronx Courthouse, 2015

  • 12" x 12", Gun Hill Brewery, Bronx, NY, 2015

  • Consequential Translation, Centro Cultural De Espana, Dominican Republic, 2015

  • Innuendos: The Voices of 10 Bronxite Women, Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY, 2015

  • La Lucha: Quisqueya & Haiti, One Island, Rio Penthouse Gallery, Manhattan, NY, 2015

 FELLOWSHIPS / RESIDENCIES / GRANTS

 PANEL DISCUSSIONS / ARTIST TALK

  • Decolonizing Identity, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Educational Center, LES, 2019

  • Women on the Frontlines, NoMAA, 2018

  • Women of Global Reflections 2018: Spirit of Community, The Interchurch Center, 2018

  • Curating Hispañola Round Table, The Graduate Center, NY, 2018

  •  Intersecting Trajectories, Rush Art Gallery, NY, 2018

SELECTED TEXT / PRESS / MEDIA