Rigoberto Torres (born 1960) is a

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...

who was born in

Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla i ...

and worked in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, before moving to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

where he currently lives and works. Torres began working in a factory where religious figures were cast, producing religious statuary. He also considers himself to be a community based artist.

Sculptures

Torres is known in part for the sculptures in plaster and fiberglass that he created of his neighbors in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New ...

, together with his partner

John Ahearn John Ahearn (born 1951) is an American sculptor. He is best known for the public art and street art he made in South Bronx in the 1980s. Life and art Ahearn grew up in Binghamton, New York, with his twin brother Charlie Ahearn, who is a film ...

. Between the years 1981 and 1985, they collaborated on four murals. These were ''We Are Family'', ''Life on Dawson Street'', ''Double Dutch'', and ''Back to School''. The sculptures, like much of Torres' work, were displayed in public attached to buildings, free standing and in street events as an element of performance art. On many occasions, Torres would prompt Ahearn to move their studio to the sidewalk along Walton Avenue so that neighborhood children could watch and also volunteer as subjects. Torres' sculptures show an instinctive drive to create

tableaux The International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods (TABLEAUX) is an annual international academic conference that deals with all aspects of automated reasoning with analytic tableaux. Periodically, it joi ...

from single figures and are included in the field of

humanistic naturalism Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method, combined with the social and ethical values of humanism. Concepts of spi ...

because they accurately portray people. He met frequent collaborator Ahearn in 1980, when Torres was working in a factory casting religious statues. They worked together on the Bronx sculptures, sometimes known as the ''South Bronx Hall of Fame'', creating monuments to ordinary people as a response to the practice of enshrining famous, heroic figures in public places.

Public Art

The Bronx

Rigoberto and John have sculpture installed on the exterior walls of buildings throughout The Bronx. * "Double Dutch," 1981-2 is located on Kelly Street and Intervale Ave. * "Life on Dawson St.," 1981-82 on Longwood Ave and Dawson St. * "We Are Family" is on Southern Blvd. facing 156th St. * There are also other casts installed outside

The POINT Community Development Corporation The POINT Community Development Corporation is a non-profit community development corporation dedicated to youth development, culture, and the economic revitalization of the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx, from which it takes its na ...

at 940 Garrison Ave.

Biography

Torres was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, in 1960. At age four, he moved to New York, first in upper Manhattan and then to the Bronx. In 1990 he returned to Puerto Rico where he produced twenty-two works over the course of a year, including ''Ruth Fernandez in 1991.

Notes

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Rigoberto Living people 1960 births People from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican sculptors Date of birth missing (living people) Puerto Rican artists