Máximo Rafael Colón
Born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Máximo Rafael Colón is a New York based photographer who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Colón's photography speaks to his concerns of social justice, activism, and cultural expression which encapsulates a wide range of interest in music, the human condition and making visible the people of our society who are often marginalized through discrimination and inequality. His primary medium is analogue photography, Colón also creates assemblages in the found object tradition. His works have been exhibited in several venues throughout New York City and Puerto Rico and a number of his photographs form part of the Centro De Estudios Puertorriqueños archives at CUNY Hunter College and of the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
In 2015, Colón's photography was prominently featured in ¡Presente! The Young Lords in New York at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, and The Loisaida Center in Manhattan. A number of his photographs form part of the Centro De Estudios Puertorriqueños archives at the City University of New York's Hunter College and his work has also been exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York, Bronx Documentary Center, New York Cultural Center and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. He is currently editing My Upside Down World: Deconstructing Photography, a five year digital project encompassing photographs from New York, Puerto Rico, Berlin, Mainz, Paris, Havana, and Toronto His works can be found in numerous publications, film documentaries and are part of many private collections.
PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITS
2019 Montage Quotidien
The Photographs of Máximo Rafael Colón
February 7 - April 8 2019
Brooklyn College Library
Brooklyn, NY
2019 Pasado Y Presente
Art After a the Young Lords Organization 1969-2019
May 2 - October 25 2019
Nathan Cummings Foundation
2019 El Sujeto Develado
Automated y Fotografía Contemporánea en Puerto Rico
Museo de Arte Dr. Pio Lopez Martinez
Universidad de Puerto Rico en Cayey, Puerto Rico
May 19 2019 - May 31 2020
2018 Entredichos
New Aquisitions of Permanent Collection MAC PR
December 16 - July 2018
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
2018 CitiCien 100 Artist 100 years the Jones act 2017- 2018,
Exhibition venues
Clemente Soto Velez, New York
Casa Ruth, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
Taller Boriqua, New York
2017 Máximo Rafael Colón, La Galería Delta de Picó- Liga Estudiantes de Arte de San Juan. Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico
2017 Rhythm & Power: Salsa in New York, presented by the Museum of the City of New York
2017 Ida y Vuelta 2017, Museo De Antropolgia Historia y Arte, Universidad De Puerto Rico Recinto De Rio Piedras
2017 Máximo Rafael Colón Autorretratos, by Mariela Fullana Acosta, El Nuevo Dia, September 18th
2017 Pa los Santos, Primera Trienal de Arte sobre Espiritualidad Afroantillana y del Caribe, Museo Casa Escuté, Carolina, Puerto Rico
2017 Whose Streets? Our Streets, New York City 1980-2000, Bronx Documentary Center
2017 Encuentro con Máximo Rafael Colón Galería de Arte de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Puerto Rico
2015 Sin Pedir Permiso: La Experiencia Afrodescendiente, Museo Casa Escuté, Carolina, Puerto Rico November
2015 Homenaje a Jorge Soto Sánchez, The Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture, Longwood Art Center@Hostos, Bronx, New York
2015 ¡Presente! The Young Lords, The Bronx Museum, Museo Del Barrio, Loizaida Center, New York, July – December
2013 Devoción, SMV Gallery Space, New York, NY, May.
2013 Black & White Two Photographers, Galeria Media Noche, April – May.
2012 Occupy Wall Street, Brick Gallery, Catskill NY.
2011 New York Photo Festival, Foto Visura Pavilion, May.
2008 1968 Then & Now, NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Nathan Cummings Foundation, September – December.
2005 Centro Gallery at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, April – May.
1974 FOCUS 74 at Gallery 1199, New York City, New York.
1974 Dos Mundos: Worlds of the Puerto Rican at El Instituto de Cultura, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1974 Dos Mundos: Worlds of the Puerto Rican at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art and the Trustees of the New York Cultural Center.
1973 Dos Mundos: Worlds of the Puerto Rican at the NY Cultural Center, sponsored by the Institute of Contemporary Hispanic Art and the Trustees of the New York Cultural Center, December 1973.
PUBLISHED PHOTOGRAPHS
2017 Radical Imagination, Radical Humanity, by Rose Muzio
2017 Encuentro, Galería de Arte de la Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Puerto Rico
2017 La eternidad de las imágenes: entrevista y crónica con Máximo Colón by Melanie Pérez Ortiz, 80grados.net; March 2017
2017 Máximo Rafael Colón Autorretratos, by Nelson Rivera, 80grados.net, November 3rd
2015 "Not An Objective Observer" by David Gonzalez, The New York Times, October 23rd
2015 "When the Young Lords Were Outlaws in New York" by Holland Cotterjuly, The New York Times, July 23rd
2011 "My life in Nueva York" by Ed Morales, 80grados.net, May 20th
2010 The Afro-Latin@ Reader Edited by Miriam Jimenez Roman and Juan Flores. Published by Duke University Press, photos on pages 240, 267.
2010 Puerto Rican Citizen by Lorrin Thomas published by the University of Chicago Press; photo on page 236.
2010 Images of America Pioneros II Puerto Ricans in New York City 1948-1998 Bilingual Edition by Virgina Sanchez Korrol and Pedro Juan Hernandez. Published by Arcadia Publishing, photo on page 99.
2009 Centro Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Volume XXI, No. 2, Fall 2009, photos on pages 114, 118, 120, 131, 132, 142.
2005 Contradictory Violence: Revolution and Subversion in the Caribbean by Nicole Waller. Published by Universitatverlag Heidelberg, 2005, photos on pages 1, 192 and 260.
2004 Cortijo's Wake - El entierro de Cortijo by Edgardo Rodriguez Julia. Published by Duke University Press, 2004, photos on pages 75 & 82.
2003 Culture Clash in America- Nuyorican Stories, by Culture Clash. Published by Theatre
Communications Group 2003. Mentioned in Acknowledgement on page 67 and developed into a character on pages 83, 84 & 85.
2001 Souls A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, Talking About Race. Winter 2001 Vol. 3 No. 1. Columbia University, Westview Press. “Racial Formation and Transformation: Toward a Theory of Black Racial Oppression” by Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua. Photo on page 39.
2001 Souls a Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, Reinventing Jamaica:
A Conversation about the Renewal of a Diasporic Society. Winter 2001 Vol. 3 No. 4. Columbia University, Westview Press. “A Biracial Identity or a New Race?” by Minkah Makalani photos on pages 82 & 89.
2001 Mambo Montage - The Latinization of New York. Edited by Augustin Lao-Montes & Arlene Dávila. Columbia University Press 2001. Acknowledgement page ix;
Introduction - photo on page 53; Chapter 9- Ambiguous Identities! By Elsa B. Cardalda Sanchez & Amilcar Tirado Aviles- photos on page 287; Chapter 5- Culture in the Battlefront by Arlene Davila- photos on page 181; Chapter 14- Engendering and Coloring Labor Unions by Mary García Castro, photos on page 407.
2000 From Bomba to Hip-Hop, Puerto Rican Culture and Latino Identity by Juan Flores. Published by Columbia University Press 2000. Prelude photo on page I, “Pueblo Pueblo” photo on page 16, “Puerto Rocks” photo on page 114; and “Life Off the Hyphen” photo on page 166.
1998 The Puerto Rican Movement Voices from the Diaspora, edited by Andrés Torres and José E. Velazquez. Temple University Press. Mentioned on page 182 photos on pages 260-61.
1996 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, published by Hunter College CUNY Winter 1996-97, Vol. IX, No. 9. “Puerto Ricans and Politics of School Reform” by Pedro Pedraza. Photo on page 74.
1994 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños published by Hunter College CUNY Winter 1994-/Spring 95, Vol. VII, No. 1. “Resources of Hope: Imagining the Young Lords and the Politics of Memory” by Agustin Lao, photo on page 35. “Caribbean Colonial Immigrants in the Metropoles: A Research Agenda” by Ramon Grosfoguel photo on page 82, photo on inside back cover.
1993 Divided Borders- Essays on Puerto Rican Identity by Juan Flores. Published by Arte Publico Press 1993. “La Carreta Made a U-Turn”: Puerto Rican Language and Culture in the United States. Photo on page 156.
1992 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, published by Hunter College CUNY Spring 1992-93, Vol. V, No. 2. The Language of Memorial Murals photo on page 18.
1991 The Hispanic World, by Professor J.E. Elliott, published by Thames and Hudson, LTD, London, England. Two photos provided.
1991 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Bulletin, Spring 1991, Vol. III, No. 2 published by Hunter College CUNY. Photos inside cover; Editorial photo on pages 6-7; “Mi Gente” by Andy & Jerry Gonzalez, photo on pages 62-63; “Latin Empire: Puerto Rap” photo pages 86-87.
1990 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Bulletin, Spring 1990, Vol. II, No. 8 published by Hunter College CUNY. “From the Margin to the Center: Puerto Rican Cinema in New York” by Lillian Jimenez photo on page 30.
1989 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Bulletin, published by Hunter College CUNY Winter 1989-1990 Vol. II, No. 7 “Mi Gente” by Antonia Pantoja & Esperanza Martell photo on page 49.
1988 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Bulletin, Spring 1988,Vol. II, No. 3 published by Hunter College CUNY. “Bumbún and the Beginnings of la Plena” by Juan Flores photos on page 19.
1987 Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños Bulletin, published by Research Foundation of CUNY- Winter 1987-88, Vol. II, No. 2. “People/Mi Gente” by Ruth M. Reynolds, photo on pages 44-45.
1974 Journal of Contemporary Puerto Rican Thought, The Rican. Published by the Midwest Institute of Puerto Rican Studies and Culture, Inc. Vol. II Number 2 & 3. Cover photo, contributor mention on page 3, photos on pages 44-45 and pages 108-109.
1973 Ramparts Magazine, January 1973-Vol. II, No. 7- “Down Those Means Streets: The Framing Of Carlos Feliciano” by Jose Yglesias. Photos on pages 34-35, 36.
1972 Carlos Feliciano History & Repression, with introduction by William Kunstler, published by The Committee to Defend Carlos Feliciano. Cover photo
FILMS
2010 Passionate Politics: The Life & Work of Charlotte Bunch, AndersonGold Films, Inc. Photos provided.
2005 Documentary Film in Progress by Melissa Montero: Our Women, Our Struggle. Photos provided.
1996 Palante, Siempre Palante The Young Lords, A Documentary by Iris Morales. Photos provided.
1995 Documentary Video Project: Karina Epperlein's Voices from Inside. Project producer Karina Epperlein