About

Puerto Rican-born, New Mexico-based artist Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado (b. 1982) utilizes repurposed electronics and discarded materials to craft self-contained survival systems that address the challenges of a planet grappling with an uncertain future. Through his process of speculative invention, Rodríguez-Delgado reconciles the scientific promise of his youth with the urgent climate and energy crises of the present. 

Steeped in the futures visualized by Star Trek: The Next Generation, the US Space Program, and Puerto Rico’s bid to host the 2004 Olympics, Rodríguez-Delgado’s work is both an elegy to an unrealized technological utopia and an adaptation of those ideals to present and future challenges. His future-minded innovations include a new font, “Orbital Basic,” which reinterprets letters in straight lines only, making it easier to write while wearing a bulky spacesuit. 

Futuros Itinerantes–his first solo museum show in the continental United States–Rodríguez-Delgado will present a new body of work that combines installation, drawing, collage, and video.

Plan Your Visit to ICA San Diego / North!

Manuel Alejandro Rodríguez-Delgado, Estudio para Combina Orbital #4 ‘ECO-4’ (Study for Orbital Combine #4, SOC-4), flood irrigation pipe, steel, aluminum, vinyl hosing, Rábano Cimarrón gathered from Puerto Rican rainforest, plywood, Douglas fir, steel, steel hardware, various repurposed electronics, cat litter containers repurposed as water tanks, 104” (H) x 31” (W) x 39” (L); artist-made crate: Douglas fir, plywood, ethafoam, water-based enamel paint, sharpie, steel hardware, 62” (H) x 31” (W) x 39” (L)

This exhibition is supported by the Linda Brandes Foundation.
ICA San Diego Exhibition Support Provided by the City of San Diego, Buttgenbach Foundation, and the Tippett Foundation.