José Ruiz: Baile, Botella y Baraja

Consolato REM Brega presents Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico, Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. About Consolato REM Brega presents Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico, Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Roberto Escobar Molina does it again: promoting Puerto Rico on the global art stage! Venice, Italy, 2026 — Puerto Rico returns to the global art scene with the Collateral Event Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico, a major exhibition dedicated to the work of Puerto Rican painter José Ruiz. Official Collateral Event of the 61st Biennale di Venezia (Biennale Arte 2026), organized by Consolato REM Brega. The project is curated by REM Escobar, who once again positions Puerto Rican art within the most prestigious international cultural circuits. Consolato REM Brega, following its first participation in Biennale Arte 2024 with the Collateral Event titled “Desde San Juan Bautista…”, commissioned by Roberto Escobar Molina —who selected the participating artists and defined the curatorial framework by assembling a team that included two curators who contributed to the project— returns for Biennale Arte 2026 with the Collateral Event Baile, Botella y Baraja. The exhibition focuses exclusively on the artist José Ruiz and marks a new chapter highlighting REM Escobar’s curatorial vision and his ongoing commitment to expanding Puerto Rico’s visibility in the international art scene. Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico presents José Ruiz not only as a naïf painter but also as a historical narrator whose work serves as a living archive of Puerto Rico’s colonial and contemporary realities. Through a deliberately non-academic aesthetic, Ruiz has built, over more than six decades, a visual chronicle of the island, where carnivals, plazas, card games, bottles, and community gatherings become repositories of collective memory, highlighting the role of women in resistance and historical memory, including the clinical trials of the Enovid contraceptive pill in the 1950s and the mass sterilizations of Puerto Rican women between 1930 and 1970, as well as their effects on cultural identity. His canvases trace a temporal arc from 16th-century gold extraction under the encomienda system and the devastation of the Taíno population, to the arrival of enslaved Africans after the Asiento of 1518, and later the imposition by the United States of a sugar monoculture, which dismantled Puerto Rico’s diversified agricultural and industrial economy. This process reveals how foundational violence gradually transformed into cultural expression through vejigante masks, bomba, plena, and community celebrations. Within this historical continuum, the presence of Taíno leadership —embodied in figures like Yuiza— highlights the enduring power of indigenous women in shaping Puerto Rico’s resistance and cultural identity. The exhibition title refers to the 19th-century colonial government formula “baile, botella y baraja,” created by Miguel de la Torre, a strategy promoting festivities, alcohol, and gambling as tools of social control to pacify the population and divert attention from political discontent and structural inequalities. In Ruiz’s hands, this logic is radically inverted: what was once conceived as distraction becomes testimony. Festivity ceases to function as alienation and transforms into counter-memory, resistance, and survival. REM Escobar’s curatorial vision places Ruiz within an international dialogue on coloniality, popular culture, and historical narrative, arguing that popular culture is not marginal to history but one of its most powerful and enduring archives. In Venice, the project expands beyond painting through a multimedia installation that weaves Ruiz’s images with Puerto Rican popular music, from bomba to contemporary perreo, reinforcing the continuity between past and present. This activation resonates with recent historical moments, including the 2019 protests that led to Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation, when the collective “Perreo Combativo,” music, and performance became vehicles of political expression. By connecting image, sound, and memory, Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico positions José Ruiz as a key narrator of Puerto Rico’s historical consciousness within the broader context of Biennale Arte 2026. “It is an honor to see José Ruiz’s work presented as an Official Collateral Event of the 61st Biennale di Venezia. This moment reflects years of consistent commitment to positioning Puerto Rican art within the international cultural discourse. Baile, Botella y Baraja – José Ruiz between the Bottle and the Canvas and his Naïf Narration of Puerto Rico confirms that our history, our cultural archive, and our artistic voices belong on the global stage. We extend our deepest gratitude to our institutional collaborators and to the Director of Consolato REM Brega, Ricardo Janiel García Negrón, Esq., Veronica Piras, Avv. Mario Pavanini, Jila Mïa Escobar, Javier Escobar, Jelinia Gilormini, Francesco Baroni, and actor Modesto Lacen for their dedication and support, as well as our strategic partners —International Gallery (San Juan, PR), REM Project, and A’LiSt [PR] Art Gallery— where José Ruiz’s work was first recognized by our curatorial team. We also sincerely thank our collectors Juan C. Stolberg, Santos Rivera, Carmen Correa, Alexis Figueroa, and Radamés Rivera, and Fundaciòn Cultural García for their trust and continued support of José Ruiz’s artistic heritage. This achievement reflects a collective effort, a shared vision, and an ongoing commitment to promoting Puerto Rican art on the international stage.” — Roberto Escobar Molina, Founder, Consolato REM Brega Painting