Curator | Educator | Artist
My work focuses on bridging closer connections to art and constructing visual narratives that inspire social change through exhibitions and educational programming.
Jayling Drowne Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican independent curator, educator, and multidisciplinary artist dedicated to exploring the intersections of contemporary art and socially engaged practices. She holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a concentration in Art History and Arts Administration from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus.
With over three years of experience working in arts nonprofits and cultural institutions, she has collaborated with leading museums in Puerto Rico and New York City, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Art of Puerto Rico, and the Museum of History, Anthropology, and Art. Her professional experience spans research, education, and curatorial projects, emphasizing accessible and transformative artistic encounters.
As an artist, Drowne Rodríguez employs diverse techniques to examine the relationship between the body, emotional landscapes, and organic forms. Her work has been exhibited at Westbeth Gallery in New York (Westside Exposure, 2023), Galería Guatíbiri in Río Piedras (Entreformas, 2023), CRiiAS Gallery at UPRRP (Entreformas, 2024), and La Lineal in San Juan (Expresiones Convergentes, 2024).
In 2024, she curated De lo Mecánico a lo Orgánico at the University of Puerto Rico, a research-based exhibition interrogating the ecological crisis through the works of eleven Latin American artists and collectives. Developed as part of her honors thesis, From Mechanical Constructs to Organic Realities: Art in the Anthropocene, the exhibition critically examines the shift from mechanistic systems to organic worldviews, highlighting art’s role in reimagining sustainable futures.
As an independent curator and educator, Drowne Rodríguez prioritizes socially engaged art, sharing narratives that transcend the gallery space and become transformative experiences. She has witnessed how art serves as a fundamental tool to understand and educate about culture and society, allowing us to represent and imagine the world we want to live in. Through her work, she seeks to bridge artistic narratives with real-world impact, challenging systemic inequities and inspiring collective change.