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National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture Presents "Archivos Vivos"by Adrián Viajero Román

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Vintage Photos, Historical Documents, and Found Objects Deepen Connections and Emphasize Memory March 8, 2025 - January 16, 2026 


CHICAGO, Illinois (January 30, 2025)­ – The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture today announced details surrounding its newest exhibition, Archivos Vivos, by Adrián Viajero Román. The exhibit’s use of archival materials highlights the ongoing work of the only museum in the world dedicated to the preservation of Puerto Rican culture outside of the island itself, as the Museum advances significant capital projects leading into its 25th anniversary, including a permanent archives building. Archivos Vivos opens March 8, 2025 and continues through January 16, 2026 at the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture at 3015 W. Division St. in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. The exhibit is free and open to the public.


Archivos Vivos is an immersive exhibition that explores the emotional, historical, and cultural layers of Puerto Rican identity, migration, and resilience. Through personal, familial, and collective narratives, the exhibition reflects on the themes of memory, loss, survival, and cultural preservation, focusing on the experiences of Puerto Rican communities both on the island and in the diaspora. 


“This isn’t just any museum,” said artist Adrián Viajero Román. “It is the only museum in the United States dedicated to honoring our history, our art, and our voices. For someone like me, who has spent a lifetime preserving and celebrating our stories, this is more than an exhibition - it’s a homecoming.” 


Key to the exhibition is the use of archival materials – vintage photographs, historical documents, and found objects – which serve as tangible links to the past. These materials deepen the connection to the Puerto Rican experience, emphasizing the importance of memory in understanding the present and future. 


“We have a solemn responsibility to preserve the stories, art, and culture of the Puerto Rican people,” said National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture CEO Billy Ocasio. “Adrián Viajero Román has created an exhibition that shows why the work of preservation is so crucial - these images, documents, and objects allow people to form a true connection with the past, giving understanding across generations.”


Archivos Vivos honors the resilience of the Puerto Rican people, celebrating their triumphs and struggles. Through a blend of visual art, installation, and poetry, Archivos Vivos invites guests to reflect on identity, belonging, and the collective journey of Puerto Rican communities, while highlighting the ongoing process of rebuilding, healing, and preserving culture and heritage. 


ABOUT THE ARTIST

Adrián Viajero Román is an interdisciplinary artist and advocate living and working between Brooklyn, New York, and the island-archipelago of Puerto Rico. His practice spans portraiture, assemblage, installation, painting, and sculpture, and explores issues of race, migration, memory, sacred materiality, and identity. Through his signature fusion of drawing, painting, sculpture, and installation, Román reimagines traditional portraiture by creating environments that offer potent cultural and historical context for understanding the current socio-political issues faced by the Puerto Rican community. 


Román was a finalist in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Portrait Competition in 2016, and the winner of the Outwin’s 2016 People’s Choice Award. He has presented solo exhibitions at the El Museo Del Barrio (New York, NY), Seed on Diamond Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), Blind Whino Gallery (Washington D.C.), Este Lado De Paraiso Taller Puertoriqueño (Philadelphia, PA), ArtWhino (National Harbor, MD), Ashay Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), and Galeria Candela (San Juan, Puerto Rico). 


Román has exhibited in group shows at the National Portrait Gallery (Washington D.C.), the Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), the Nathan Cummings Foundation (New York, NY), the Ackland Art Museum (Chapel Hill, NC), El Museo Del Barrio (New York, NY), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, MO), Museum of South Texas (Corpus Christi, TX), Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA), African American Museum (Philadelphia, PA), Sala Municipal De Exposiciones De San Sebastián (San Sebastián, Puerto Rico), Caguas Museum of Art (Caguas, Puerto Rico), and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (New York, NY). 


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ABOUT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF PUERTO RICAN ARTS & CULTURE

The National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Culture (3015 W. Division St. in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood) is the only national museum outside of Puerto Rico dedicated to interpreting the arts and culture of the Puerto Rican people. Founded in 2000, it is housed in the historic landmark Humboldt Park Stables and Receptory, near the Paseo Boricua. For more information: https://nmprac.org/

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