Bio
Lionel Cruet is a Puerto Rican visual artist based between New York City and San Juan. Working across installation, moving image, photography, performance, and light-based media, his practice considers relationships between landscape, ecology, technology, and human perception, often through the environmental and geopolitical realities of the Caribbean.
Cruet’s work has been presented at institutions including MTA Arts & Design, Des Moines Art Center, Guild Hall, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Everson Museum of Art, and Wave Hill. In 2026, his work is featured in CONTEXTILE - Contemporary Textile Art Biennial in Guimarães, Portugal, and in TERRITORIOS at Fundación Cortés in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His work is held in collections including the Des Moines Art Center and Everson Museum of Art.
Cruet has received the Juan Downey Audiovisual Award and has participated in fellowships and residencies with Socrates Sculpture Park, The Laundromat Project, Art Omi, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, and the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. He holds an MFA in Digital Interdisciplinary Art Practice from the City College of New York and a BFA from the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Diseño de Puerto Rico.
Lionel Cruet
Education
2017 Master’s in Education – College of Saint Rose, Albany, NY
2014 Master of Fine Arts – Digital Interdisciplinary Art Practice – CUNY – The City College of New York, New York, NY
2011 Bachelor of Fine Arts – Image and Design – Escuela de Artes Plásticas, San Juan, PR
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 Lionel Cruet: #seen, MTA Art & Design, New York, NY
2024 Lionel Cruet: Sunburnt, (solo exhibition), Ely Contemporary Art Center, New Haven, CT
2021 Lionel Cruet: Retóricas de un futuro incierto, El Lobi, San Juan, Puerto Rico, curated by Dianne Bras Feliciano
2020 Lionel Cruet: Dusk/Daybreak, Yi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2017 Lionel Cruet: Entre Nosotros (Between Us), Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, LA, curated by Benjamin Hickey
2014 Lionel Cruet: In Between, Real and Digital, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY, curated by Karine Duteil
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Contextile 2026 – Contemporary Textile Art Biennial, International Exhibition, Guimarães, Portugal
2026 Permanent Collection Exhibition - Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR
2026 TERRITORIOS 2026 at Fundación Cortés, San Juan, Puerto Rico, curated by Diana Cuellar Ledesma
2024 Hurricane Season, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, curated by Mia Laufer
2024 Eco vs. Ego, Guild Hall, Hamptons, NY, curated by Edwina Von Gal
2023 Entangled Nature: Lionel Cruet and Lina Puerta, The Bronx Museum for the Arts, New York, NY
2022 Between and Within, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, curated by Claire Kim
2021 Eco Urgency: Now or Never, Wave Hill, Bronx, New York, NY
2018 Socrates Sculpture Park Fellowship 2018, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY
2017 Seen and Heard, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, curated by DJ Hellerman
2017 AIM Biennale, The Bronx Museum for the Arts, New York, NY, curated by Aylet Ojeda Jequín
Residencies
2024 Artist Residency 2024, Helikon Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey
2022 SHIFT Residency, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
2020 Programa de Talleres y Residencias, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo Quito, CAC, Quito, Ecuador
2018 Artist Residency Program Summer 2018, Art OMI, Ghent, NY
2018 Artists Residency, Elizabeth Murray, Troy, NY
2015 Artists Residency, The Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, Ithaca, NY
2015 Artists Residency, The Salzburg International Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Salzburg, Austria
Collections
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Museo de Arte Moderno, MAM, Chiloé, Chile
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY
Jose Maria Vargas University, Miami, FL
Fundación Casa Cortes, San Juan, PR
Private Collection, Orlando, FL
Private Collection, Washington DC
Private Collection, San Juan, PR
Private Collection, New York, NY
Private Collection, Hudson, NY
Selected Press
Hyperallergic, “10 Art Shows to See in Upstate New York This June,” by Taliesin Thomas, May 29, 2024. Read article
Evergreen Journal, “As Far as the Eyes Can See,” by Joy Garnet, February 13, 2023. Read article
The Latinx Project, “Lionel Cruet’s Uncertain Futures, Certain Beauty,” by Laura Rivera-Ayala, December 21, 2021. Read article
Evergreen Review, “The Third World Is Here,” by José García Escobar, Fall/Winter 2019, New York, NY. Read article
Designboom, “Lionel Cruet Materializes the Cloud in Espacio Intangible Installation,” February 18, 2016, Italy. Read article
The New York Times, “What Is Real?” by David Gonzalez, February 6, 2013, New York, NY. Read article