Rafael Angel Acosta Diaz: An emerging Puerto Rican sculptor

Before he was even ten years old, Rafael Angel Acosta Díaz knew that someday he would be an artist. Now, Acosta Díaz, 22, is in his third year of college, at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico or the Fine Arts School of Puerto Rico, majoring in Sculpture, and creating innovative pieces that have impressed his teachers and peers.

Acosta Díaz' influences? His grandfather...

“I’ve always enjoyed creating with my hands, my grandfather has a mechanic garage and I always felt a sort of influence towards creating with my hands.”

...and renowned Puerto Rican sculptor Adelino González.

“I create mixed mediums, and I believe I got that influence from Adelino, the influence to work with different materials and mediums to create an elegant piece with an experimental concept.”

Mutants of Hiroshima

During his second year at the university, Acosta Díaz exhibited a series of 20 miniature soldiers, highlighting the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The soldiers were made with plastic pieces, which the artist burnt with fire to be able to achieve the deformed faces poisonous radiation.

The Spiders

Acosta Díaz is currently working on an installation consisting of 50 pieces. The pieces showcase spiders made with different kinds of wood and steel. Each spider is different, they vary in their size and style, and some are 2 inches while others are up to two feet.

“The purpose is to create a tense environment because spiders are the number one phobia, most people are afraid of them. But I’m also adapting to what spiders symbolize as they undergo continued sacrifices to be able to survive, because you can destroy the spider’s web ten times, and the spider will create it again ten more times.”

Acosta Diaz is not sure where he will be in ten years, but he is sure of where he wants to be.

“I want what every artist wants, to be recognized, for people to know my work and appreciate my work. I want to make a living from my passion, my art, my sculptures.”

For more information or to contact Rafael Angel Acosta Diaz you can send him an email at rafaelngl@yahoo.com.

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