Joseph Liberali has worked within many complex industries, seamlessly making transitions between publishing/editing, loss mitigation, home owner counseling, asset management, and non-profit work providing funding to home owners in distress. He organizes live events and performs in Boynton Beach at the Boynton Beach Art District(BBAD) and has a unique perspective on relevant issues.
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I've known Rolando Chang Barrero, the artist and activist, for years through the Boynton Beach Art District(BBAD) located in Boynton Beach, Florida.
In 2011, I initially wrote about the local scene he was building with artists, their works, his own paintings, and musicians of all varieties. Rolando has spoken candidly with me in interviews over the years and we've worked closely together on many live events.
Over time we have become good friends, so I write this article from a slightly slanted perspective.
Anyone who's familiar with the Boynton Beach Art District(BBAD) probably knows it for it's brilliantly colorful and tastefully controversial set of murals done by a series of local artists. The area's formerly a small industrial park, a set of garages overrun by painters, sculptures, conceptual artists, and workmen.
It represents a paradise for lost artistic miscreant talent and the midde upper class bourgeoisie that support their honest trade. That certain je ne sais quoi combined in a joie de vivre making the events seem like an organic circus has been fostered overnight by vision alone.
Rolando has suggested the murals there lean on a postmodernist critique of WWII propaganda posters and campaigns, only reflecting issues that compliment the modern, alternative lifestyles in the artists own individual artistic voices.
You may also know BBAD, or Rolando, because of the Art Walks / Open mics that take place there each fourth Thursday of the month featuring prominent locals artists, poets, musicians, and hosted by the Examiner's own Joseph Liberali.
So my extensive association with Rolando and BBAD might make this article biased, but it's written with as much objectivity as humanly possible considering the circumstances and there's a lot of good business being done by artists in Palm Beach County surrounding this particular community, so I digress.
Rolando is BBAD's Director and Curator of sorts, as much as one can be with a group of headstrong artists, and has been working out of his own work space at BBAD for over 5 years now. He recently opened an art gallery in downtown Lake Worth.
When I heard this community leader and prolific painter opened his own gallery I expected nothing short of perfection, but I what got upon attending an exhibition there exceeded my expectations, to say the least.
The space is expertly decorated with artists of all varieties, and while I am not an expert in modern art, Rolando certainly is and as a patron of the arts of South Florida and a mentor who's fostering many up and coming artists, you could spend a long time in that space exploring all the little peccadillos to be found there
It's a great place to explore and learn about the Southern Florida art culture and find hidden gems, admiring and acquiring the resplendent works of myriad sorts from various painters, sculptors, local vendors, and beyond Rolando's own gorgeous art, the cultural landscape of South Florida and beyond.
Rolando can regularly be found at or around BBAD or at his Gallery in Lake Worth. He's an amazing spirit, an amazing human being that exudes passion, warmth, and paint.