Highlights of the MOLAA Collection
DANIEL LIND-RAMOS
(Puerto Rico, 1953)
El elector, 1998
Mixed media & painting on canvas, wood structure.
52 x 42 inches
MOLAA Permanent Collection.
Accession: 2002
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
El elector combines a surreal painted scene with the assemblage practice that has become a characteristic feature of Lind-Ramos’s work. A painted row of scavenged bottles appears in a neat line on the top of the painting’s custom wood frame. In the foreground, a crouching dark-skinned figure holds a mask over his face, bringing to mind the title of Frantz Fanon’s seminal work of decolonial theory Black Skin, White Masks (1952), published the year before Lind-Ramos’ birth. The political dilemma of the colonial subject has been one of the artist’s primary concerns, with recent works examining the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Lind-Ramos’ native Puerto Rico in 2017. In El elector, the principal figure holds a paint brush, poised over a blank surface. A painter’s palette lying in front of him bears daubs of green, red, and blue paint that, according to scholar Fabienne Viala, represent the official colors of three of Puerto Rico’s main political parties. Lind-Ramos’ “elector,” thus, contemplates the prospect of voting within a neo-colonial system that does not grant Puerto Ricans the same rights of enfranchisement as other U.S. citizens. At the same time, by drawing a metaphorical equivalence between electoral and artistic practices, Lind-Ramos seems to stake a claim to the political potency of creative expression.
Daniel Lind-Ramos, El elector, 1998
BIOGRAPHY
Daniel Lind-Ramos was born in 1953 in Loíza, Puerto Rico, a predominantly Afro-descendent community outside the capital of San Juan. This community and Puerto Rico’s African cultural heritage in general have featured prominently in Lind-Ramos’ work throughout his career. He received a B.A. in visual arts from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras in 1975, where he credits the artist Félix Bonilla Norat as a major influence upon his artistic development—in particular his early interest in color theory. He later received an M.F.A from New York University in 1980 and completed studies at the Taller Antonio Seguí, Ecole de Beux Arts (Paris, France) in 1989. He has exhibited extensively internationally, including in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the 2023 São Paulo Biennial, and recently a solo exhibition at MoMA PS1 (2023). Lind-Ramos’ sculptural works often incorporate scavenged objects from his immediate environment and comment upon the history and politics of Puerto Rico. He is the recipient of major awards including the Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship (2019), the Pérez Prize (2020), and the MacArthur Fellowship (2021). He teaches in the Humanities department of the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao.
