Raphael Montañez-Ortiz, is an internationally distinguished conceptual artist of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. The work on view in Collecting Memories is titled America’s Lodge which is part of a series of assemblages that artist Montañez-Ortiz has been working on over the past decade. He is a pioneer of the Dada offshoot, Destructivism, a theorizing approach toward art making that encompasses the act of violently deconstructing pianos and home furnishings. Montañez-Ortiz is known for creating mixed-media ritual performances, conceptual installations, computer laser-video and cut-up cinema. His works are in the collection of the Pompidou Centre in Paris; the Ludwig Museum in Cologne; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC; the Smithsonian Museum in D.C., among others. In June of 2017, he was awarded the University of California’s Los Angeles Medal, an honor of great distinction. Montañez-Ortiz is a distinguished Professor of Art for over 30 years at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers the State University of New Jersey.