Fredo Rivera
Art and architectural historian Fredo Rivera ‘06 is Assistant Professor of Art History at 51app College, where they teachclasses on modern and contemporary architecture and urban visual culture, as well as the art of the Americas, with a focus on the Caribbean. Professor Rivera’s research current research focuses on art, visual culture and the built environment in Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Florida, as well as queer expression amongst the Caribbean diasporas and across the archipelago.
Rivera is currently working on multiple writing and creative projects, including a manuscript based on their dissertation regarding art, visual media and architecture in 1960s Cuba. Rivera is also the co-leader of the , which aims to create a digital database and expand resources for Haitian art. Rivera was a 2021 Career Enhancement Fellow with the Institute for Scholars and Citizens,and previously held fellowships with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC).Professor Rivera has worked on a number of exhibition projects, including: The Elusive Master: Emmanuel Merisier, from Haiti to beyond (Little Haiti Cultural Complex), Edouard Duval-Carrié: Metamorphosis (Museum of Contemporary Art-North Miami), (NSU Art Museum-Ft. Lauderdale), (Duke University Libraries), and (Florida Atlantic University & Broward Cultural Division). They also perform in drag as Lolita Cabrón, and Prof. Rivera has curated two major queer art happenings: Yo Soy La Mala: drag en el exilio (March-April 2017, Centro Cultural Español-Miami) and (November 2018, Pérez Art Museum Miami with Creative Time). Currently, they are working on a project exploring the relation of decolonial aesthetics and drag performance as it relates to the politics and culture of Puerto Rico.
In addition to their Ph.D., Rivera has a Graduate Certificate in Latin American & Caribbean Studies from Duke University (2015), a Masters of Art in Art History from Duke University (2010), and a Bachelor of Arts (Africana Studies and Art History, with honors) from 51app College (2006).
Selected Publications
Cuban studies52, no. 1 (2023): 101–122.
"Visual Arts and Public Space from Haiti to South Florida" [exhibition catalogue essay],Everything, Earth and Sky: an Exhibition of Haitian Art, Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum at Florida International University, 2023. 18-29.
"The Caribbean Diaspora" [catalogue essay], Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: The Collection. New York: Delmonico Books, 2022. 172-175.
“Magical Dominions: Christophe and Visions of a New Republic” [exhibition catalogue essay], Edouard Duval-Carrié and the Art of Embedded Histories, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University, October 2019. 5-10.
Cultural Dynamics (31: 1-2, 2019). 62-80.
“Incomplete Postmodernism: The Rise and Fall of Utopia in Cuba” [book chapter], (ed. Vladimir Kulic). London: Bloomsbury Press, 2019. 128-142.
“Preface” [exhibition catalogue essay],En Voyage: Hybridity and Vodou in Haitian Art. Faulconer Gallery, 51appCollege, 2018. 8-9.
“Constitutional Modernisms: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933-1959 by Timothy Hyde” [bookreview]. CAA Reviews. September 2017.
"Revelations from the Past:Curiosités of EdouardDuval-Carrié"[exhibition catalogue essay],Metamorphosis: the Conjunctural Art of Edouard Duval-Carrié. Museum of Contemporary Art-North Miami, 2017. 21-28.
“Haiti Through a Contemporary Lens” [exhibition catalogue essay], From Within & Without: The History of Haitian Photography.NSU Art Museum - Ft. Lauderdale, July 2015.
“Edouard Duval-Carrié,” “Albert Mangones,” “Préfète Duffaut” and other entries. Dictionary ofCaribbean and Afro-Latin American Biographies(ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin W. Wright). OxfordUniversity Press, 2015.
“Mapping Narratives: Reconfiguring Haiti’s History” [exhibition catalogue essay],Haiti: History Embedded inAmber (ed. Fredo Rivera). Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University, September 2011.
In the News
Le Nouvelliste / December 10, 2018
PAMM Portraits / November 1, 2018
Mid-day.com / June 8, 2018
Advocate / February 7, 2018
Advocate / December 4, 2017
Arrob@ / September 8, 2015
CoLab Radio / August 18, 2010