Dante Rodriguez was born in Uruapan, Michoacán, Mexico in 1978 and raised in Lorain, Ohio by a Puerto Rican family. Always drawing as a kid, it was “natural to study art in college.” He received a BA in Studio Arts from Cleveland State University. Although his concentration was in Drawing, he took additional courses in painting, printmaking, and sculpture. During his time at Cleveland State, he was a gallery attendant at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery where he learned art handling, exhibition design, installation, and lighting. This experience eventually led him to a position as an Art Handler at The Cleveland Museum of Art and on to his current position as Mount maker within the Exhibition & Design Department.

Dante has been researching his transnational or bi-national cultural background as a Puerto Rican-Mexican and exploring the different social dimensions of his multiple identities. Rodriguez’s work uses the possibilities of portraiture to explore the layers and complexities of personal identity as influenced by time, personal experiences, and national and transnational culture.