ROLANDO PEÑA

"He is a man who does not admit any conventional separation between art and life."
– Pierre Restany

Rolando Peña / The Black Prince

By Pierre Restany (Art Critic/Cultural Philosopher)

We call him the Black Prince, because of the color of his garments, an exclusive preference he shares, among others, with his friend Andy Warhol. And which permits us, within remote memory, to associate him with another legendary figure: Edward its son, noble among nobles, brave among England's bravest who defeated John the Good in Maupertuis near Poitiers. 

At his age, he is a fulfilled man who has been in contact with everything. Since the start of his career, he has wandered through art, theater, T.V., cinema and even dance, which he practiced in the Venezuelan National Ballet, and also in the prestigious dance companies of Martha Graham, Alvin Nikolais, and Merce Cunningham. He has experimented with all the forms of corporal expression from the "psychedelic show", and the "street happening" to numerous multi-media performances. He took to the theater, the performance The Illumination of Buddha with Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary; he participated in several Andy Warhol films of 1967 and some more recent works. He introduced himself in the fetishism of "Santería" (a kind of witchcraft) uselessly searching to detach formally from his impersonation. Where is the code for this turbulent life? 

He is a man who does not admit any conventional separation between art and life. What counts for him are the deep fixations, the structural columns of personality, the catalyst of the imaginary, the crest, the collar of the doublet, the chest protector, the armor for thighs and legs, and the articulation of this ancient armor as a whole.