SAN JUAN, PR.- The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) announced the opening of the panoramic exhibition Relator con Amargura, by Puerto Rican artist José Lerma. The exhibition, which consists of more than 60 works of various formats, techniques and stylistic stages, is presented at the Helen Ann French Gallery and the Bertita and Guillermo L. Martínez Gallery.

“This exhibition shows for the first time the complexity of an exceptional Puerto Rican artist who, following the legacy of previous generations of artists, opted for painting at a time when the international art circuit –where José Lerma moves at its fullest– turned its gaze to other less complex and immediate means of execution. Thus, he has demonstrated how tradition can be united with contemporary research,” said María C. Gaztambide, executive director of MAPR.

For his part, Juan Carlos López Quintero, curator of the MAPR, mentioned that “although the work seems disparate at first glance – because here the chronology was broken and the works speak to each other – Relator con Amargura is a pictorial installation where nuances and color palettes are respected, although it is a resoundingly contemporary exhibition. That is something that had never happened to me before.”

Regarding the process of working with Lerma, he added: “it has been very beautiful, a constant, intense, even emotional dialogue, but with a lot of respect. I have been able to express my ideas, listen to his and produce together. I have learned a lot from him in all this time.”


Photo: Alberto Rigau.


Relator con Amargura is part of the Regresos / Homeward Bound series, a project started by the MAPR in 2023, with the aim of inviting contemporary Puerto Rican artists, living abroad, who have exhibited their work internationally, but are little known on the island.

Thanks to the support of Ford Ford Foundation, Puerto Rican Institute of Culture, Joint Special Commission on Legislative Funds for Community Impact, Tourism Company, Voy Turisteando, Flamboyán Fund for the Arts, and LAT18 Risk Services.

José Lerma was born in Seville, Spain in 1971 and grew up in Puerto Rico.
He earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of Madison, Wisconsin (1994). In 1995, he began law studies at the same university, opting for a Master of Fine Arts (2002). From 2009 to 2023 he was an associate professor in the Department of Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

His work has been exhibited locally and internationally in cities such as: New York, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Raleigh, San Juan, Panama City, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Brussels, Canary Islands, Madrid, London, Paris, Venice, Milan, Seoul and Shanghai.

Lerma has exhibited his work individually in prestigious institutions such as: Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina (2012); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, Illinois (2013); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, Michigan (2014); Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri (2016), among others.

Among the distinctions received are: Eliza Randall Prize, Houston, Texas (2004); Wisconsin Alumnus, Forward Under Forty Award (2008); L Magazine, NY, selected as one of the best 12 exhibitions (2012); Newcity, featured in the list of the 50 most influential artists of Chicago (2012); International Association of Art Critics of Puerto Rico, Best Gallery Show of 2012, ABC Spain, Best of ARCO (2013), Hirshhorn New York Gala-Artist X Artist. Celebrating Artists Across Generations, Around the World (2023).

His work is included in prestigious public and private collections including: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee and most recently, in 2023, Contemporary Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR) is a non-profit organization inaugurated on July 1, 2000 and accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 2012. Its mission is to study, research, and preserve Puerto Rican artistic heritage in order to foster innovative, inclusive, and participatory approaches between the visual arts and the communities it serves. In 2020, the Ford Foundation included MAPR on its list of America’s Cultural Treasures for its history of excellence and significant impact on the cultural landscape. Located at #299 De Diego Avenue in Santurce, its important and varied art collection houses works by Puerto Rican artists, or residents of Puerto Rico, from the 18th century to the present.

For more information about Relator con Amargura and the educational programming that will be developed around the exhibition, visit the Museum’s social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok under @museomapr. The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico is located at Ave. De Diego #299 in Santurce in front of the Minillas Government Center and is open to the public from Wednesday to Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursdays with extended hours until 8:00 p.m. (free admission from 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. By phone, please call 787-977-6277.