Guillermo Rodríguez examines Earth as a sentient being, rendering cosmological data sensible and playful. Using artworks as tools of perception, he undertook two parallel investigations as part of his CCI Fellowship: Doppler Landscapes turns “satellitally” inward, proposing an atmospheric conception of landscape. Consisting of large-format silkscreens based on satellite-generated meteorological data, this ongoing series studies the ubiquity of global warming as a generator of new subjectivity and artistic processes. Interstellar Topographies stems from Rodríguez’s interest in the work of Puerto Rican astrophysicist Wanda Díaz-Merced, who is known for her role in the field of space-data sonification and advances in the field of space data physicalization. Composed of large-scale tactile sculptures, this ongoing series translates astronomical data into three-dimensional objects based on models being developed by NASA and other agencies for the blind and visually impaired (BVI) communities.

Guillermo Rodríguez studied fine arts and sculpture at the University of Puerto Rico. He received a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Art Practice at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2010, and attended the Master of Arts program in Curating Visual Arts at Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires. He has been awarded a Rauschenberg Residency and a Banff Centre Visual Arts Residency, participated in the FAAP residency program, and was an inaugural recipient of a Davidoff Arts Initiative residency in Basel. He has had solo exhibitions in Puerto Rico, Germany, Argentina, and Tenerife. His work was included in the 11th Havana Biennial and in Artesur, Collective Fictions at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Final del juego at Fundación Proa in Buenos Aires, and […] ENTREFORMAS at Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, among others. As part of his fellowship with Beta-Local in 2016, he founded and directed La Estación Espacial, a transitory exhibition platform. Rodríguez recently curated Herbaria at Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales in Havana; CROMÁNTICA de Chaveli Sifre and Balancing a Blade on Diamond Grass (Balancing a Diamond on a Blade of Grass) at El Lobi in San Juan; and KIOSK at Cuchifritos Gallery + Project Space in New York. He is a 2022 Independent Curators International Research Fellow. 

Click here to read Luis Othoniel Rosa’s essay “Anything Is Sentient: Guillermo Rodríguez’s Confounding Artifacts of (Perceptual) Disidentification,” where the author engages in a panoramic study of Guillermo Rodríguez’s body of work in order to contextualize his most recent series Doppler Landscapes (2023) and Interstellar Topographies (2023) created within the framework of the CCI fellowship.

The 2022 Artist Fellowship has been presented in collaboration with Bakehouse Art Complex.  

Guillermo Rodríguez. Untitled from the series Doppler Landscapes, 2023. Cyanotype on watercolor. 48 x 48 inches. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.

Guillermo Rodríguez. Untitled from the series Doppler Landscapes, 2023. Cyanotype on watercolor. 48 x 48 inches. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.

Guillermo Rodríguez. Untitled from the series Doppler Landscapes, 2023. Cyanotype on watercolor. 48 x 48 inches. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.

Guillermo Rodríguez. Untitled from the series Interstellar Topographies, 2023. 3D print. 20 x 20 x 5 inches. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.