Reflection Refraction

For the Neuberger Museum of Art’s golden anniversary, Purchase College alumnus Jason Rodriguez ’12 (Arts Management) has conceived of an exhibition that draws on the Museum’s permanent collection and his own art and experience, informed by his time spent at Purchase.

Works reflect the visitor but alter that reflection, as conversely a person’s subjective experience alters perception of that artwork. Reflection is shaped by each artist: around the form of the body (to honor the subject, as in the Elizabeth Catlett work, or to highlight the subject’s imperfections, as in the Ernest Trova work), to approximate mathematical and scientific ideals (as Ruth Vollmer considers how human models of geometric forms are essentially biological, or as Otto Piene synthesizes projected and reflected light to alter spatial perception), in motion (as José de Rivera and Edward Lee Hendricks’ kinetic reflections slowly arc and rotate), and through superimposed referential forms (as Robert Rauchenberg overlays historical and cultural iconography over the viewer’s reflection, or as Anthony James impels the viewer to look through a chainsaw to their reflection, infinitely repeated).

Rodriguez’s own videos, canvases and soundscapes showcase his choreography; impressions of Washington Heights, Harlem, and the Dominican Republic; and the record of his movement workshops that will be held throughout the exhibition.

Featured is a selection from the Museum’s permanent collection of dance photography and prints capturing in motion the work of Charles Weidman, Barbara Humphreys, Anna Sokolow, Pearl Primus, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham. These portraits document a lineage of training and inspiration, but also of socially- and politically-conscious choreographers, which flows through their influence on the work of Kevin Wynn, and of Jason Rodriguez, who is mentoring and inspiring a new generation of artists.

Generous support for Reflection Refraction has been provided by the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art and by the Purchase College Foundation.

About Jason Rodriguez

While studying Arts Management, Rodriguez ardently pursued the study of dance. In ballet and modern classes, he found the structure and “technique of perfection” to be rigorous training, but he truly flourished creatively and professionally under the mentorship of Purchase College Faculty Emeritus Kevin Wynn (’79), who passed away in November 2023. While at Purchase, Rodriguez attended a screening and workshop by Benny Ninja, catalyzing his interest in voguing, “a dance form that comes from Black and Brown Trans culture” that both emulates and subverts the poses of fashion models with precision, irony and strength. Rodriguez said: “I’m Dominican. Within my culture we have dance forms like Bachata and Merengue, which connect us to family, to our lands, to our ancestors, and I feel like voguing does the same thing for queer, trans, and non-binary folks. It allows them to tap this dance form and know that it is passed on from a lineage of ancestors.”

Following years of work in dance and choreography, Rodriguez earned critical and popular acclaim in his role as Lamar in the FX network’s show Pose, becoming the Movement Coach and Choreographer for the show, and subsequently teaching and choreographing for prestigious international venues, schools and festivals. His innovative style brings a dimensional activation of space, displaying lightness and strength, a rolling, linked landscape of controlled floorwork, configurations of motion creating continuity among dancers and breaking precisely as they move in and out of groups. The references in Rodriguez’s choreography to groups supporting one another, expression and individuated identity, determination against opposing forces (including gravity and entropy) reflects the culture and community he has found around voguing, and that he has worked to pass along to subsequent generations.