Rodríguez Calero Visual Artist | Painter, Collagist and Photographer

Rodríguez Calero, affectionately known as “RoCa”, studied under many notable Puerto Rican Artists at the Instituto de Cultura, Escuela de Artes Plasticas. Her mentor and dear friend Master Artist and Printmaker, Lorenzo Homar, has been the main influence in her approach in developing her work ethic and signature style in painting, which she termed acrollage, a transcending evolution of a mixed media combination of acrylic paint, paper, and a form of printmaking.

Upon receiving her BFA in Puerto Rico, she returned to New York and continued her studies at the Art Students League of New York and focused in painting and collage under Master Artist, Leo Manso and held a National Endowment for the Arts residency at Taller Boricua which was located above El Museo, with fellow artists Marcos Dimas, Gilberto Hernandez, Nestor Otero, Jose Rodriguez, Fernando Salicrup, Jorge Soto and Manny Vega.

While at The League, she was the recipient of several awards and scholarships including the prestigious Edward G. McDowell Travel Scholarship, which permitted her to journey abroad to Spain and France to pursue her interests in art.

Rodríguez Calero has received residencies from The New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, and others include Jerome Foundation Scholarship, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, NY, (1981-1982), Taller Boricua (1980-1982); Provincetown Art Association, MA (1985 -1986), Galeria Bonaire, Puerto Rico (1987-1988), Kenkeleba House, NY (1989-1990), Brandywine Workshop Center for the Visual Arts, PA (1999), and Rutgers Center for Innovative Print and Paper, NJ (2000).

Her painting has been acknowledged by The New York Institute of Puerto Rico with the Honorary Artist of the Year Award; the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association Painting Award held at the Brooklyn Museum, and from The National Association of Women Artists she was given the Belle Cramer Memorial Prize for Abstract Painting Medal of and the Audrey Hope Award.

In addition to these accolades, Rodríguez Calero has received fellowships from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (1999), the New York Foundation for the Arts (2000), and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts (2000 and 2002) 

In 2004 Liquitex developers of acrylic paint and mediums, chose her as an Artist of the Month and in 2005 valued her, to represent, both Nationally and Internationally, the Liquitex Company, in celebration of their 50th Anniversary.

In 2006, she was featured in New Jersey Networks Public Television State of the Arts Series, “Sign of the Times”, 2008-2009; she received the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant in painting. RoCa was an invited guest artist in 2009, to participate in an international exchange to create art pieces relating to the ancient gardens in Suzhou, China and in 2010 she was a finalist in Photographer’s Forum and was placed in their Best of Photography 2010 edition. 

In 2015 her survey exhibit, Rodriguez Calero | Urban Martyrs and Latter Day Santos, curated by Alejandro Anreus at El Museo del Barrio, New York, was highly received and reviewed and was given an honorable mention by Hyperallergic of the 20 best NYC exhibits. Her works are in many private and public collections.