Spotlight Artist

Carlos Rolón

Midwest
Artist profile photo
Featured in New American Paintings

Artist Statement

Rolón has been recognized for his elaborately crafted paintings, ornate sculptures, and works that come out of American, Latino, and uniquely based subcultures. His studio practice investigates pop culture, craft, ritual, beauty, and its relationship to art history, subculture, appropriation, and the institution. As a first-generation immigrant of Puerto Rican descent, the artist creates objects that examine the concepts of luxury and craft-making to explore questions of identity, integration, and aspiration. He often addresses his biography by melding memory and the imaginary with carefully crafted, hybrid works that are playfully situated between the contradictory worlds of conspicuous consumption and urban artifact. The artist often channels this approach with site-specific installation work, vivid large-scale paintings, and ornate sculptures in various materials, expanding on ideas of self-reflection and imagined luxury. The works ultimately produce a hybrid language of social practice, painting, and sculpture, inviting the viewer to engage in discourse and discussion.

Discover more artists from the Midwest

THE MAGAZINE

Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists

Open magazine with text, modern illustrations, and a list of artists on a pink background.
View issues

Call for Artists

Submit your work for consideration

New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.

View competitions

Your gateway to new art

Discover tomorrow's art stars, today

Two books on a wooden table with a modern decorative sculpture in the background.

PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$159/YEAR

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH

Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.