The Life and Art of Alberto Rey

The Virginia Sportsman

When getting ready to interview a subject, I find preparation is key. Always have your first question ready. Here’s a recent example.

“So, you retired from academia after a 33-year career as a distinguished professor of fine arts. You’re a prolific and successful artist, published author and content producer. You paint in your barn and exhibit your work globally in renowned galleries and museums. You’re a conservationist who founded and directs a youth fly fishing program. And you’re an Orvis-endorsed guide who takes clients fly fishing for steelhead on a stream behind your home in Upstate New York. How did I miss this life plan, and where do I sign up?”

Alberto Rey chuckled. “I’ve been fortunate,” he said humbly.

Rey was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1960. He received his political asylum through Mexico in 1963 and moved to Miami, Fla., in 1965. Two years later, his family relocated to Barnesboro, Pa., where he first discovered his passion for painting and drawing.

“I grew up in a small coal-mining town of 2,000 people,” said Rey. “There was no art scene there, but I was interested in it and began painting and drawing by copying album covers and MAD Magazine cartoons. In high school, I progressed by duplicating paintings in history books. At no point did I ever imagine I could make a living as an artist.”

West Point recruited Rey to play football. He was there for a short time before he transferred to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). On a whim, he decided to take an art class, and his professor encouraged him to stay with the arts. Soon afterwards, he was offered a teaching assistantship and attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh while at IUP. Rey focused his studies on painting and illustration during his junior year.

“That was the big shift for me,” Rey explained. “I’ve always been a science geek and at one point entertained the idea of being an oceanographer. My time at IUP led me to refocus my educational and professional pursuits from biology to art.”

In 1982, Rey earned his B.F.A. from IUP, an institution that would honor him with a distinguished alumni award in 2008. After graduation, he lived in Boston and then headed to Miami to work on Christo’s Surrounded Islands Project. Considered one of the greatest environment-art projects ever made, the installation involved surrounding 11 islands in Biscayne Bay with floating pink woven polypropylene fabric. The idea behind the work was underlining the elements and ways in which the people of Miami live between land and water. Next, he moved to Hollywood, Fla., where he worked at Joan of Arts Studio as an artist creating large fine art etched glass panels for private homes, cruise boats and shopping malls.

Rey continued his education at the University at Buffalo, and in 1987, he received his M.F.A. in drawing and painting. After graduating, he traveled throughout Spain, Italy, Morocco and Mexico. The following year while teaching at Lincoln-Sudbury High School, The Art Institute of Boston, New England School of Art and Design and the Museum of Fine Arts, he enrolled in courses at Harvard University in contemporary art and environmental studies. That same year, he had his first solo exhibition in New York City at the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art (MoCHA) and was selected into the permanent collection of El Museo del Barrio in New York City.

In 1989, he moved to Dunkirk, N.Y., to accept a teaching position at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia and married Janeil Strong. In 1992, his works were selected into the permanent collections of the Albright-Knox Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art and Bronx Museum of Art. In 1994, Rey received the Hagan Young Scholar/Artist Award for distinguished research and creative activity as a junior faculty and the Minority Visiting Scholars Award from Central Missouri State University.

In 1996, while at SUNY Fredonia, Rey accepted a position as director/curator at the Chautauqua Center of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution. Soon afterwards, he was appointed to the New York State Council on the Arts and to the Artist’s Advisory Panel of the New York Foundation for the Arts. Three years later, Rey received the Kasling Lecturer Award for distinguished research and creative activity as a senior faculty member. In 2003, he received the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity. In 2007, the State University of New York’s Board of Trustees promoted Professor Alberto Rey to SUNY Distinguished Professor for Research and Creative Activity, the state university’s highest rank.

“I began fly fishing after my academic and professional career was on track and while I was on sabbatical from SUNY,” he said. “There was a sporting goods store in town, and people were talking about salmon running up rivers near Lake Erie. In the fall I tried it with a neighbor who was a fly-fishing addict, and then I became an addict too.”

Rey inexpensively outfitted himself at Cabela’s and went so far as to attach AstroTurf to the bottom of his sneakers so he could wade into rivers. He had the basics without buying too much, starting simple and fishing every day. He began tying flies, which appealed to his artistic talents. Then the educator in him came up with an idea.

“There was a large population of minority and lower-income children in our area, and I believed fly fishing would be a great way to get kids out of the city and into the outdoors.”

In 1998, Rey attended Sportfishing and Aquatic Resource Educational Programming (S.A.R.E.P.) through the Cornell Cooperative. The seminars provided training for instructors who would provide educational conservation experiences to children. He then founded and began directing the S.A.R.E.P. Youth Fly Fishing Program with a grant. In 2016, S.A.R.E.P. Youth Fly Fishing Program’s name was changed to Children in the Stream/4H Program.

“Children in the Stream is an educational program that provides youth with information and experiences related to aquatic resources, conservation, ethics and fly fishing. Our goal is to protect fish and the land for future generations. And the kids don’t have to think about money. Thanks to Orvis, Patagonia, Rich Family Foundation and private donors, we provide all the equipment, materials and classes for free so that students can participate without worrying if they can afford to participate. I plan on directing the program until I die. We have a lot of fun, and it makes me happy.”

Rey’s artwork has been influenced by his Cuban lineage and his attempt to find a sense of identity in a complex contemporary environment. His abstract work from 1982 through 1992 dealt with issues related to layered memories of Cuban iconography and his American experiences. After 1992, his drawings and paintings incorporated realistic imagery to make clear connections between his past concerns and art history, regionalism and his bi-cultural interests. In the field, he sketches with pen and ink and paints in watercolor. In the studio, he paints in oil and works with ceramics.

Since his relocation to western New York in 1989, Rey has also performed extensive research on local entomology and on the migratory and biological sensibilities of the regional steelhead. In 2000, his reflections on contemporary society started to incorporate environmental issues, perspectives in contemporary art theory and art history, biology and society’s disconnections with nature.

Today his paintings are found in more than 20 museum collections and have been in over 200 exhibitions. His films and videos have been screened internationally, and his illustrated articles and artwork have graced the covers and pages of Gray’s Sporting Journal, Art of Angling Journal, Fish and Fly Magazine, American Angler, The Drake, Saltwater Fisherman, Angler’s Journal, Fly Fishing International Magazine, Hallowed Waters Journal and Buffalo Spree, where he is a visual arts writer.

In 2014, the first book outlining Rey’s work, “Life Streams – Alberto Rey’s Cuban and American Art,” was published by SUNY Press in conjunction with his solo museum exhibition at the Burchfield-Penney Art Center in Buffalo. The exhibition concentrated on his Biological Regionalism Series that investigated the long history of the Scajaquada Creek and when its condition became so polluted that it was buried under the city of Buffalo. The project also looks at its present condition and the challenges that face the river and community.

Rey has written and illustrated numerous books. He has also combined his research with his interest in sharing the spirituality of fly fishing to become an Orvis-Endorsed Fly-Fishing Guide. He was the international finalist for the 2020 Orvis Freshwater Guide of the Year Award and the international winner of the 2021 Orvis Guide of the Year.

“In February, my wife and I are going to travel around the world for six months,” he said. “We are going to fly fish, scout locations and check out outfitters and lodges so I can host trips in the future.”

Towards the end of our interview, Rey invited me to join him on a guided steelhead trip in the Fredonia area. I’d be a fool not to go. You can learn a lot from spending time with an artist. It’s just difficult to paint Rey with that one brush.

Visit albertorey.com for more information about his art, guided fly fishing and conservation work.

Joe Shields is the editor in chief of The Virginia Sportsman. He is a writer and communications executive based in Charlottesville, Va. His writing and photography have appeared in The Virginia Sportsman and other publications. He is also an award-winning, gallery-represented artist whose work is found in private collections and galleries. Whether fly fishing or surfing, drawing or painting, he celebrates sporting life and culture in his narratives and art.