Miami Art Basel: Up & Coming Artist Carmelo “Memo” Rios

By Rease Kirchner

I recently went to Miami to check out the huge annual art event, Art Basel. I saw some amazing stuff and even managed to do so on the cheap. More on that in an upcoming article, for now I’d like to put the focus on an up and coming artist who had his first exhibit during Art Basel: TransForm by Carmelo “Memo” Rios.

Rios with a few of his paintings from the TransForm exhibit

Just getting started

Carmelo “Memo” Rios is a nineteen year old from Fajardo, Puerto Rico, currently in his first year at the Escuela de artes plásticas in San Juan, Puerto Rico. While Rios has been drawing for most of his life, painting is a new endeavor for him. Knowing that a 19 year old was responsible for all the incredible paintings was shocking enough, when he informed me that he had only taken on painting earlier this year, I was stunned.

Rios displayed works in pencil, acrylic and oil pastels. The walls were covered in pieces of all sizes; all playing with perception of depth and space. While some of the paintings reminded me of styles I had seen by other artists, such as Salvador Dali, each work was distinctly Carmelo Rios. There were several paintings deemed self portraits, though none of them looked the same. I loved the way he justified two very different portraits to me. He explained that he received an assignment to do two self portraits. One was supposed to be as accurate as possible, the other could be whatever he wanted. He laughed as he told me that he usually doesn’t like to follow instructions, but he knew he wanted to do something totally crazy for the second one, so he kept the first one as simple and serious as possible.

The optimism of a not-so-tortured artist

One thing I loved about Rios was his optimism and charm. From his complex paintings, you might expect to meet someone overly serious and arrogant. However, Carmelo Rios is neither of these things. I couldn’t help but smile at his charming naïveté as he told me “I think everyone can draw and paint, you just have to work at it.” Oh, Carmelo, if only you could see some of my artistic attempts. While he spoke confidently about artists, techniques and was not shy about admitting to his perfectionism, he never made any visitor to his exhibit feel inferior or unwelcome. He seemed genuinely honored to have anyone appreciate his art. At the age of 19, Carmelo is already worrying himself about his masterpiece and plotting to conquer the art of sculpture as well. He also enjoys collaborating with other artists, simply for the sake of art.

Ignore the bad lighting, I'm a writer, not a photographer or painter! Focus on the art and Carmelo's happy smile.

Check out more

As of right now, Carmelo Rios just has a simple webpage dedicated to the TransForm exhibit. He will be working on displaying more of his work soon. In the meantime, stop by the site, check out a few more photos and drop him a line.

Rease is a US citizen who fled the Midwest in favor of ex-pat life in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is bilingual and is very capable of cussing you out in Spanish. She loves gaining and sharing knowledge of local cultures, customs and adventure, and she especially loves getting sassy with anyone who gets in her way. Her favorite place in the world is any artisan ice cream shop in Argentina.
Featured image: “Nebula” by Carmelo Rios