Not Alone: The Windows of Jose Rios

“No one does it alone.” This was one of the expressions I heard from Jose Rios as I spoke with him at the gallery opening for his third solo art exhibit Windows which showed at the Gelabert Studios in New York April 19 through April 30. Windows is a beautiful exhibition featuring more than twenty paintings of portraits, cityscapes, and still lives through the symbol of the window. Rios’ paintings allow the viewer a glimpse into the world of the varied people living in this urban jungle we call a city. The loves, hopes, and struggles of his subjects, which sometimes cross geographic and cultural boundaries, are depicted through various perspectives in these works. Rios invites the viewer to look, wonder, relate, and tell stories making peeping toms out of us all. When you look around and see all the familiar faces in these frames, alone is not a word that comes to mind.

Rios has always been surrounded with familiar faces. The youngest of a family of six, he was born in Puerto Rico in 1954. Two years later, his family moved to an old tenement building in New York City. It was there that he had his first encounter with art. “Lying back in my bed with my head dangling off the edge of it, I ignored everything around me as I stared at the ceiling. I used my eyes as brushes and the cracks and shadows as paints for my canvas. Soon after, I started school where my artistic talent was quickly acknowledged and awarded.” Unfortunately, as an adult, Rios found himself in a negative environment, surrounded by drug users. He soon became one of them and was unable to function in society, eventually becoming homeless for a long ten years. In 1997, Rios put down his syringe and picked up a paintbrush going back to that which first gave him purpose. Thus, the circle of life.... for complete story click HERE