Rolando Peña
A key figure of the theatre, dance, and fine arts worlds since 1958, internationally known Venezuelan artist Rolando Peña shares his knowledge of contemporary art, discusses his artistic background and collaborations, and expands on the theme of crude oil in his work.
Peña uses oil as an expression both of Venezuela and of how Venezuela is perceived internationally. By means of sculpture, graphics, film, and video, and sometimes live performance, he examines the ideas of power, money, and religion through the vehicle of oil and the machinery associated with its extraction.
Peña began his artistic career in Caracas as a student of architecture and design at Universidad Central de Venezuela. He went on to join the theatre faculty and pioneered the multimedia shows Testimonio and Homenaje a Henry Miller with the writer José Ignacio Cabrujas, which featured dance, films, slide projections, and among other elements.
Supported by a grant from the Venezuelan government, he traveled to New York to study dance and engaged intensely with the artistic activity of the moment, coming in contact with Martha Graham, Alvin Nikolai, Merce Cunningham, Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, José Single, and Andy Warhol. Warhol filmed many of The Foundation for the Totality’s happenings, and Peña acted in some of Warhol’s films. Peña’s own film Diálogo con Ché, directed by José Soltero and shot in New York, was invited to the 1969 Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, and the Cinémathèque Palais Chaillot in Paris.
NOTE: This program is conducted entirely in Spanish.
RELATED PROGRAMS
Radio ESTILO
RADIO SERIES
Caresse Lansberg hosts, Arte con ESTILO, a Venezuelan radio program of interviews with rising and established artists as well as prominent personalities from the art world.
In Venezuala, the show has become a resounding success and a regular feature on Sunday morning programming of Radio VenFM, a quality media outlet. Each segment of the program is accompanied with music carefully selected by Ms. Lansberg and played by a popular DJ with the aim of attracting a younger audience.
Ms. Lansberg is working in collaboration with The Clocktower Gallery & Radio to build her Latin audience in the U.S. She interviews musicians, architects, film directors, curators, galerists, art critics, actors, writers, and more in a continued effort to the promotion of art.
more 