Rolando Castellón, also known as Rolando Dionisio Castellón-Alegria (born 1937) is a

Nicaraguan American A Nicaraguan American ( es, nicaragüense-americano, ''nicaragüense-estadounidense'', or ) is an American of Nicaraguan descent. They are also referred to as "nica" or "nicoya". The Nicaraguan American population at the 2010 Census was 348,202 ...

painter, author, art historian, and curator. He was a well-known contributor to the arts of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

and he has lived in Costa Rica since 2013.

Biography

Rolando Castellón was born in 1937 in

Managua ) , settlement_type = Capital city , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Nicara ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to ...

. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1983. In 1966, he was a co-founder of the Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes in the

Mission District The Mission District ( Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission ( Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name i ...

of San Francisco. By 1970, Castellón was a co-founder of

Galería de la Raza Galería de la Raza (GDLR) is a non-profit art gallery and artist collective founded in 1970, that serves the largely Chicano and Latino population of San Francisco's Mission District. GDLR mounts exhibitions, hosts poetry readings, worksh ...

, alongside

Ralph Maradiaga Ralph Maradiaga (1934–1985) was an American artist, curator, photographer, printmaker, teacher, and filmmaker. He was Chicano, one of the co-founders of Galería de la Raza and part of the San Francisco Bay Area Chicano Art Movement. Biograph ...

Rupert García Rupert García (born in 1941 in San Joaquin Valley of French Camp, California) is an American Chicano visual artist and professor. He is known as a painter, pastellist, and screen printer. In the 1960s, as a leader, he led a movement against 'Yank ...

, Peter Rodríguez,

Francisco X. Camplis Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name '' Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father o ...

, Gustavo Ramos Rivera,

Carlos Loarca Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewh ...

, Manuel Villamor, Robert Gonzales,

Luis Cervantes Luis Roberto Cervantes Godínez (born 9 February 2001) is a Mexican professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football divi ...

, Chuy Campusano, and René Yañez. He served as a curator at

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

(SFMoMA), from 1972 to 1981; and at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, from 1994 to 1998. His first retrospective art exhibition, ''Rolando Castellon: A Legacy of Mud, Post-Columbian Objects, 1981–1997'' (1997) was held at the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mil ...

Bibliography

* * * * *

References

External links

SFMOMA 75th Anniversary: Rolando Castellón, conducted by Jess Rigelhaupt, 2007
by

Regional Oral History Office The Oral History Center (ROHO) is part of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley. The office was founded in 1954. ROHO conducts, analyzes, teaches about, and preserves oral history interviews on a wide range of topics relate ...

, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley {{US-painter-1930s-stub Living people 1937 births American people of Nicaraguan descent People from Managua Nicaraguan painters Hispanic and Latino American artists American curators Costa Rican curators