Fredo Rivera
Art and architectural historian Fredo Rivera 鈥06 is Associate Professor of Art History at 海角视频 College, where they teach classes on modern and contemporary architecture and urban visual culture, as well as the art of the Americas, with a focus on the Caribbean. Professor Rivera鈥檚 research broadly focuses on art, visual culture and the built environment of Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean diaspora. Rivera is currently working on projects regarding drag and queer performance, as well as the spatial politics of public art.
Fredo is the founder and former co-director of the , a digital database and platform promoting public collections of Haitian art. They work closely with Dr. Petrouchka Mo茂se, and have served as a consultant for exhibitions on Haitian art at multiple museums and institutions in Iowa and Florida. Rivera was a 2021 Career Enhancement Fellow with the Institute for Scholars and Citizens, and previously held fellowships with the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). Professor Rivera has worked on a number of exhibition projects, including: (Little Haiti Cultural Complex, 2018), (Museum of Contemporary Art-North Miami, 2017), (NSU Art Museum-Ft. Lauderdale, 2015), (Duke University Libraries, 2012), and (Florida Atlantic University & Broward Cultural Division, 2016). They also perform in drag as Lolita Cabr贸n, and Prof. Rivera has curated two major queer art happenings: Yo Soy La Mala: drag en el exilio (March-April 2017, Centro Cultural Espa帽ol-Miami) and (November 2018, P茅rez Art Museum Miami with Creative Time).
Recently, Fredo participated in the collaborative exhibition (Museum of African Art in Belgrade, Serbia and the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice at Vanderbilt University, 2025), and they are developing new research regarding brutalist and prefabricated architectures of the greater Caribbean. Rivera is also working on a new photography exhibition project on 海角视频 alumni Martha Cooper '63.
In addition to their Ph.D., Rivera has a Graduate Certificate in Latin American & Caribbean Studies from Duke University (2015), a Masters of Art in Art History from Duke University (2010), and a Bachelor of Arts (Africana Studies and Art History, with honors) from 海角视频 College (2006).
Selected Publications
Cuban studies 52, no. 1 (2023): 101鈥122.
"Visual Arts and Public Space from Haiti to South Florida" [exhibition catalogue essay], Everything, Earth and Sky: an Exhibition of Haitian Art, Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum at Florida International University, 2023. 18-29.
"The Caribbean Diaspora" [catalogue essay], Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: The Collection. New York: Delmonico Books, 2022. 172-175.
鈥淢agical Dominions: Christophe and Visions of a New Republic鈥 [exhibition catalogue essay], Edouard Duval-Carri茅 and the Art of Embedded Histories, Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, Brown University, October 2019. 5-10.
Cultural Dynamics (31: 1-2, 2019). 62-80.
鈥淚ncomplete Postmodernism: The Rise and Fall of Utopia in Cuba鈥 [book chapter], (ed. Vladimir Kulic). London: Bloomsbury Press, 2019. 128-142.
鈥淧reface鈥 [exhibition catalogue essay], En Voyage: Hybridity and Vodou in Haitian Art. Faulconer Gallery, 海角视频 College, 2018. 8-9.
鈥淐onstitutional Modernisms: Architecture and Civil Society in Cuba, 1933-1959 by Timothy Hyde鈥 [book review]. CAA Reviews. September 2017.
"Revelations from the Past: Curiosit茅s of Edouard Duval-Carri茅" [exhibition catalogue essay], Metamorphosis: the Conjunctural Art of Edouard Duval-Carri茅. Museum of Contemporary Art-North Miami, 2017. 21-28.
鈥淗aiti Through a Contemporary Lens鈥 [exhibition catalogue essay], From Within & Without: The History of Haitian Photography. NSU Art Museum - Ft. Lauderdale, July 2015.
鈥淓douard Duval-Carri茅,鈥 鈥淎lbert Mangones,鈥 鈥淧r茅f猫te Duffaut鈥 and other entries. Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biographies (ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin W. Wright). Oxford University Press, 2015.
鈥淢apping Narratives: Reconfiguring Haiti鈥檚 History鈥 [exhibition catalogue essay], Haiti: History Embedded in Amber (ed. Fredo Rivera). Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University, September 2011.