Arnaldo Morales (born 1967) is a Puerto Rico-born, New York-based artist who creates interactive, mechanical sculptures using recycled and fabricated industrial materials.
[1] Morales’s work combines found, recycled elements from the waste of aviation, motor sports, household items, the medical industry, public transportation, prisons, pools, playgrounds and other sources with carefully detailed fabricated parts.
Electric motors, air compressors, pneumatics, and other mechanical systems power their kinetic activity, which is often experienced by viewers as intimidating and dangerous but also exciting.
"[1] Morales was included by the critic Manuel Alvarez Lezama among a group of Puerto Rican artists that he singled out as “Los Novísimos” (The Newest Ones).
[5] The importance of Puerto Rican artists of this generation is, as museum director Silvia Karman Cubiña writes, "their social dimension and the potential for interaction with others.