Dante has been researching his transnational or bi-national cultural background as a Puerto Rican-Mexican and exploring the different social dimensions of his multiple identities. Rodriguez’s work uses the possibilities of portraiture to explore the layers and complexities of personal identity as influenced by time, personal experiences, and national and transnational culture.
Dante’s portraitures, both in representational and abstract forms, are informed and filled with complex narratives that have the power to generate multiple interpretations. His work is characterized by powerful drawings intersected by strong and brilliant colors and shapes that invite to think about the self as a fragmented and distorted metaphor that reflects the constant flux of our multiple identities. Dante states that he wants to “reassess identity as an abstract idea that is intangible and can be questioned to form a new image of ourselves.” His work is in numerous private art collections. He has participated in community events, such as the Day of the Death in Cleveland, The Cleveland Museum of Art’s Parade the Circle, and the Chalk Festival. He has exhibited at Cleveland West Arts League, Mansfield Art Center, Cleveland State University Art Gallery, Doubting Thomas, Beth K. Stocker Art Gallery, Oakland Center for the Arts, Sandusky Cultural Center and The Cleveland Museum of Art.
