FREDRIC SNITZER GALLERY

In Memoriam Rafael Ferrer

October 24 — November 14, 2026

This exhibition is presented in tribute to Rafael Ferrer, celebrating his extraordinary life, artistic legacy, and the relationships he cultivated over nearly six decades. For Fredric Snitzer, Ferrer was not only an artist and collaborator, but also a teacher and lifelong friend. Their relationship, which began in 1969, evolved through years of shared experiences, exhibitions, and conversations.

Reflecting on their nearly 60-year friendship, Fredric shares a few personal thoughts on the profound impact Ferrer had on his life, personally and professionally.

This week, I lost a part of me.

It's strange to describe this part. Maybe a gallbladder or a liver. Something that has always contributed to who I am, most of the time unnoticed, but always there. A part of you that shapes who you are, even when you're not aware of it. And from time to time, it reminds you of its impact and significance.

I met Rafael Ferrer in 1969 at Philadelphia College of Art, where I studied under him.

When I first arrived in Miami, the Lowe had a group exhibition that included Tierra del Fuego. Time passed. We spent some time together in New York, in the Meatpacking District, where he had a studio. Eventually, I asked if he wanted a show.

We did it. It was a privilege.

At some point, we went our separate ways, as even a gallbladder can act up from time to time. But we reconnected, and we remained together until now.

That is almost a 60-year journey, and now it has come to an end. I know I will feel this loss, on and off, for a long time to come. How lucky I was to have had him in my life.

About Rafael Ferrer
Rafael Ferrer (b. 1933, San Juan, Puerto Rico) was a multidisciplinary artist whose practice moves fluidly across painting, sculpture, assemblage, and installation. Over a career spanning more than six decades, Ferrer worked both within and beyond key 20th-century movements, including Dada, Surrealism, and Conceptual Art, developing a highly individual visual language that resists categorization. Driven by curiosity and a deep engagement with art history and global cultural narratives, his work reflects an ongoing inquiry into material, form, and meaning.

His work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at major institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

A major retrospective organized by El Museo del Barrio, New York, traveled in 2010. Ferrer has also participated in landmark exhibitions such as Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland and Op Losse Schroeven, at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands and has been included in the Whitney Biennial. More recent presentations include Under the Same Sun at the Guggenheim Museum, America Is Hard to Seeat the Whitney Museum, and Surrealism Beyond Borders at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Tate Modern.

His work is held in leading public and private collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum, among many others