BIOGRAPHY

Roland Pasqual Rockwood

(b. Bronx, New York). Born of Cuban, Puerto Rican and Italian descent, Roland began drawing the human figure drawn to its fragile lines at an early age. He studied anatomy and figure drawing at the National Academy of Design in New York (nationalacademy.org) under the renowned art instructor and author of "Master Class in Figure Drawing" Terence Cole, who also taught at the Art Students League in New York. During this time, Roland was also part of the Graffiti revolution where subway trains and walls were his expressive canvas.

Roland is a Navy veteran and has spent four years on a ship traveling around the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean visiting many places in Europe and the Caribbean. Some highlights of his travels were visiting the world’s largest Gothic Cathedral in Seville, Spain where fellow explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus’s tomb is located and while in Rome, Italy visiting St Peter’s Basilica where Michelangelo’s paintings are in grand view. Recent travels has been to Shanghai and Beijing, China.

Roland spent a number of years in the Physical Therapy profession working with the senior population and the terminally ill . Thereafter, venturing for a few years in the field of artificial limbs designing and fabricating artificial limbs for people with various disabilities including missing body parts. This sheds light on the reasoning behind some of the images in his paintings depicting the plight of the human spirit. Although Roland has studied the anatomical figure, he has always been inspired by abstract expressionism and all avant-garde media.

Roland holds a Master & Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. He has completed studio work in acrylic and oil painting from Indiana Purdue University’s Herron School of Art + Design. He is inspired by the works of many world-renowned Abstract Expressionist and Old Masters, including Rubens, Caravaggio, Da Vinci, Dürer, Picasso, Rauschenberg, de Kooning, Frankenthaler, Johns, Mitchell, Rothko, Motherwell, Twombley, Coignard, Bacon and Tàpies.

2009, Roland was featured in the Graffiti book “SENTO The Fantastic Partners” published by From Here To Fame Publishing. His recent Graffiti artwork is below.

2014 Egberto Almenas, PhD. A former tenured professor and senior research associate in art and literature, and currently a docent at the Orlando Museum of Art published a book called “Time Capsules, The Contemporary Art Scene in Central Florida and Beyond”. Roland’s paintings were displayed in the book with commentary under the section; Reconstruction and Constructivism.