If there’s a silver lining in the recent presidential election, it’s that we’ll be seeing much more from Edel Rodriguez. His Trump-trolling political illustrations gave us life as we dealt with the existential dread of another orange-tinged term.
But, his political satire only scratches the surface of his full oeuvre.
Rodriguez’s work spans from painting and sculpture to film posters, portraiture, children’s book illustrations, and on and on. Steven Heller recently wrote about his illustrated book covers for two Cuban sci-fi titles in a recent The Daily Heller. He also wrote and illustrated his American experience in Worm, a graphic memoir that spans his fleeing from Castro’s Cuba as a young child on the Mariel boatlift to watching the insurrection unfold on January 6, 2021. If you missed our PRINT Book Club with Rodriguez about Worm, it’s definitely worth a watch.
Rodriguez is the subject of a new documentary, Freedom is a Verb, now screening at DOC NYC from Nov 13 through Dec 1, and airing on PBS in the coming months. Directed by Adrienne Hall and Mecky Creus, the film explores the reckless pursuit of freedom inherent in all of Rodriguez’s work. Watch the trailer here.
With the election decided, Rodriguez’s work takes on layers of prophetic meaning. We look forward to Edel Rodriguez’s truth-telling in the near future, reminding us of the power of artists and creatives in times of chaos and despair.
Below, we’ve highlighted some of his stellar work over the last few years.
Left: Latino voter engagement illustration for The Washington Post; Latino vote 2024 poster
Covers for Stern (Germany, two at top left), La Croix (France, top middle), and Time (US, top right and bottom two).
Imagery courtesy of Edel Rodriguez.