Jorge Luis Rodriguez’s installation *Orisha/Santos: An Artistic Interpretation of the Seven African Powers*. Photo by Michael Wolf

The last time Jorge Luis Rodriguez’s installation Orisha/Santos: An Artistic Interpretation of the Seven African Powers was shown was in 1985 at the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art. New York City was a little grittier then; 42nd Street flickered with the neon glow of triple-X theaters while sex workers hustled on the sidewalks, and Alphabet City was a place to avoid even in daylight, its streets littered with burned-out buildings and hypodermic needles. Ride-sharing was still decades away; if you needed to cross town, you raised your arm, hailed a yellow cab and hoped for the best. With Ed Koch as mayor, the city was still pulling itself out of the financial crisis of the 1970s.

It was against this backdrop that Rodriguez and his collaborator Charles Abramson gathered the raw materials for Orisha/Santos. They went “dumpster diving” in SoHo, then still alive with garment factories, salvaging colorful scraps of fabric to hang from the gallery ceiling. They hauled in freshly cut tree branches that, as Rodriguez recalled, “emanated a verdant fragrance that permeated the space for the duration of the exhibition.” They added a small pond with twelve live fish that were cared for by the museum’s staff.

At the opening reception, singers, dancers, and musicians performed ritual pieces rooted in Santería, infusing the installation with movement, sound, and spirit. Ki Smith, owner of the eponymous gallery, first met Jorge Luis Rodriguez at a group show at his gallery. They connected immediately and arranged a studio visit. Ki recalls standing in the stairwell of Jorge’s home-studio, surrounded by many of the original Orisha/Santos figures, as Jorge described the installation to him. Shortly after, they began planning a solo exhibition centered on the recreation of the original Orisha/Santos installation.

“Jorge has dreamed of re-creating the original Orisha/Santos installation from 1985 for decades now, and I am honored to be the one to take that on,” Smith said.

One panel from *Orisha/Santos: An Artistic Interpretation of the Seven African Powers*. Photo by Michael Wolf

Orisha/Santos: An Artistic Interpretation of the Seven African Powers is a complex installation with a rich historical backstory. Orishas are divine spirits in the Yoruba religion, which originated in West Africa and predates both Christianity and Islam. The Yoruba people, from what is now southwest Nigeria and southeast Benin, were brought to the Americas through the slave trade, including the Caribbean, where they were known as the Lucumí. Despite prohibitions, the Lucumí preserved their traditional religion by associating orishas with Catholic saints. Initiates into the Yoruba priesthood, who “made saint,” were called Santeros—the same term used for the carvers of saint statues, or Santos. Santo is the Spanish word for “saint,” while Santería refers to the worship of Yoruba deities, orishas, alongside their Catholic counterparts. From the late 18th to the early 20th century, the carving of Santos—wooden statuettes of saints—flourished in Puerto Rico.

Treasured as household intermediaries between God and man, they were embraced as part of the family, sharing in daily joys and sorrows. Building on this legacy, Jorge Luis Rodriguez’s work honors the Catholic Santos tradition while also tracing its transformation into the Orisha—African deities preserved under Catholic guise in the Spanish colonies, resulting in a powerful mystical fusion of two cultures. Rodriguez says, “I became aware of the Yoruba Santería religion during my childhood visits to the town of Loíza Aldea, Puerto Rico, one of the first African-Taino slave communities in America. In this village, many of the rituals and ceremonies related to this religious system, first formed on the island of Cuba, are still practiced by descendants of the original people.”

“Although I am not a member of the Yoruba religion, many of its elements are visible in a variety of artistic expressions within my cultural heritage. To deepen my understanding of its doctrines and rituals, I invited two of its initiates to participate in the exhibition: Charles Abramson, responsible for creating the altarpieces for each image, and Cynthia Turner, who has written the documentation explaining the iconography of each orisha/saint,” he added.

Upon entering the gallery, the viewer is immediately immersed in an environment of brightly painted red, yellow, green, and blue walls. Slightly off-center stands a steel crucifix, accompanied by a steel figure resembling the Virgin Mary and surrounded by a series of steel orisha/saints. In front of these sculptures, offerings and altars rest on a black cloth, with a larger central altar commanding attention, while colorful shredded fabrics cascade from the ceiling. At first glance, the scene appears to depict familiar Catholic imagery—the Crucifixion, the Virgin Mary, and a host of saints—but these symbols reveal deeper, more complex meanings when considered in the context of the Yoruba religion. For example, what appears to be an image of the Virgin Mary, the Virgen de las Mercedes (Our Lady of Mercy), also doubles as the Yoruba deity Obatalá. Obatalá, one of the oldest and most revered Yoruba deities, is the orisha of wisdom, logic, and longevity, possessing both male and female attributes. His sacred color is white, symbolizing purity, and his devotees believe that following his teachings ensures success and long life.

Sculptures by Jorge Luis Rodriguez. Photo by Michael Wolf

In the New World, Obatalá is identified with the Virgen de las Mercedes, reflecting his associations with mercy and justice. The installation includes sculptures with these layered meanings: Elegua/El Niño de Atocha (Holy Infant of Atocha); Ogun/San Pedro, identified with St. Peter and John the Baptist; Obatalá/Virgen de las Mercedes; Orunla/St. Francis of Assisi; Shango/Santa Barbara; Ochun/La Caridad del Cobre (Our Lady of Charity); Yemaya/La Virgen de Regla, a veneration of Mary associated with the town of Regla in Cuba; and Olofi/Christ Crucified. For a deeper understanding of the cultural context of this installation, the gallery has produced a color catalog with full descriptions and essays about its history, as well as an in-depth explanation of the meanings behind it. But that is not all! Also included in the exhibition is the maquette for Rodriguez’s public sculpture Growth, which has stood in Harlem Art Park since 1985.

This large, organically shaped steel work, painted red, was the first sculpture commissioned through New York City’s Percent for Art program, launched in 1982 under the Koch administration. Mayor Koch himself attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony. Growth was inspired by Rodriguez’s early life in Puerto Rico. The sculpture is situated in the front room of the gallery among other abstract painted steel works by Rodriguez. In the downstairs gallery space are smaller painted and unpainted steel sculptures, whose size, presentation, and impact bear a relationship to Melvin Edwards’ Lynch Fragments series.

This is a not-to-be-missed exhibition—who knows, it might not be shown again for another 40 years. Orisha/Santos is a major work of American art that, in this writer’s opinion, deserves a place in the permanent collection of the Whitney or El Museo del Barrio.

The exhibition is open until August 30th at Ki Smith Gallery 170 Forsyth St, New York, NY 10002

At Ki Smith, A Rexamination of Jorge Luis Rodriguez’s Orisha/Santos

Exaltation, at Plato Gallery in the LES