Ektor Rivera
Ektor Rivera is a Puerto Rican visual artist whose work explores cultural identity, historical memory, and Puerto Rico’s evolving social and cultural narratives. Working primarily in large-scale painting, Rivera combines realism with symbolic and narrative elements to reinterpret history, heritage, and collective memory through a contemporary lens. Working primarily in large-scale painting, Rivera combines realism with symbolic and narrative elements to reinterpret historical and cultural imagery through a contemporary lens. Rivera earned his bachelor’s degree from the School of Plastic Arts & Design in Puerto Rico, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a concentration in Imaging and Digital Design. His work has been exhibited in Puerto Rico, including the Museo de las Américas in San Juan, where his exhibition Puerto Rico en Mí (2019) explored themes of national identity and cultural pride. In 2023, Rivera was commissioned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Luis A. Miranda Jr., and producer Ender Vega to create a large-scale painting honoring Rita Moreno. The work is now part of the permanent collection of the Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré in San Juan. Alongside his visual art practice, Rivera has developed an international career as an actor and singer, performing in productions on Broadway, in London, and Las Vegas. This background directly informs the theatrical and narrative qualities present throughout his visual compositions. Rivera’s work and career have been featured in publications including the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times.
OBRAS PARA CULTURAL CANVAS – OCEANS
1. EL NACIMIENTO (Pieza original)
Dimensions: 111” x 76”
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
– El Nacimiento reimagines the mythical origin of Puerto Rican identity through a narrative inspired by Indigenous Caribbean cosmology. Within a landscape suspended between sea, sky, and ancestral memory, the Taíno spirit, jíbaro culture, and the present converge into a single figure, embodying centuries of cultural continuity. More than a historical depiction, the work proposes a contemporary myth about origin, identity, and the collective force that continues to define Puerto Rico.
2. ISLA VIVA (Reproduction – Framed)
Dimensions: 30” x 40”
Medium: Giclée on Somerset Velvet Fine Art Paper
Year of completion: 2025
Isla Viva transforms our island landscape into a living heart. Emerging from the sea, it becomes a metaphor for memory, belonging, and continuity; a reminder that the lands we love not only shape who we are, but continue to beat within us
3. VERSUS (Pieza original)
Dimensions: 30” x 50”
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Year of completion: 2026
Versus presents a simple paradox: in destroying nature, we ultimately destroy ourselves. Driven by ambition, the figure moves forward unaware that his own body is becoming the very landscape he seeks to devastate. The work serves as a reflection on the inseparable relationship between humanity and the land that sustains it.
4. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICANS (Reproduction – Framed)
Dimensions: 36” x 54”
Medium: Giclée on Somerset Velvet Fine Art Paper
Year of completion: 2026
The Discovery of Americans reimagines Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware as a contemporary allegory about identity, belonging, and visibility in the Americas. At the center of the composition, Bad Bunny stands wrapped in the Puerto Rican flag, not simply as a global artist, but as a symbol of collective progress carried forward by generations before him. The work celebrates the enduring contributions and cultural legacy that Puerto Ricans and Latinos have left on the history, culture, and ongoing story of the Americas.
Art Page: @ektorrivera_art
Personal: @ektorrivera
Email:
[email protected]
Website:
www.ektorriveraart.com
Shop:
https://ektor-rivera-art.myshopify.com/
https://ektor-rivera-art.myshopify.com/collections/cultural-canvas-oceans-event-release
