Puerto Rico — March 20, 2026 — Sabroso! is pleased to present Lo que trajo la ola, the first solo exhibition by Emmanuel “Emma” Rivera Berrocales at the gallery’s flagship space, located at 802 Calle Corchado in Santurce, Puerto Rico. On view from March 26 to May 5, 2026, the exhibition marks Sabroso!’s second exhibition of the year.
“Change something by just 3%, and you’ve created something new,” said fashion designer Virgil Abloh when describing his well-known 3% rule. This idea proposes that innovation does not always emerge from inventing something entirely new, but from intervening in what already exists through a minimal change. In Lo que trajo la ola, Emmanuel “Emma” Rivera Berrocales works precisely from this logic. The exhibition brings together a series of paintings that take as their point of departure the visual language of the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. At times, Rivera Berrocales reproduces recognizable scenes and images from the series, introducing small alterations—his own “3%”—that shift their meaning. At other moments, he creates compositions that converse with the show’s visual language and elements, such as water, shells, sponges, and other motifs that shape its underwater universe.
Through this gesture, the artist appropriates images deeply embedded in collective memory and popular culture. The familiarity of the cartoon activates nostalgia and recalls the experiences of a generation that grew up watching these animations. Yet Rivera Berrocales uses this same familiarity to produce subtle displacements: a phrase changes, a new symbol appears, or an unexpected context is introduced. What might initially appear as a simple reference to popular culture becomes a space where alternative readings of the socio-cultural and political present in which Emma exists begin to emerge.
In this sense, the work can also be understood through the framework of Relational Aesthetics. As noted by Antonio del Valle Lago, co-founder and curatorial director of Sabroso!, Rivera Berrocales’s paintings should not be read solely as appropriations of a cartoon. Instead, they function as devices that absorb cultural, political, and personal information and transform it into a form of entertainment.
Within this dynamic, the work becomes a meeting point between shared references—television, generational nostalgia, humor—and the interpretations that each viewer brings to the encounter. Within these interventions, layers of personal experience and political commentary also emerge. In some pieces, the artist establishes connections between different territories and colonial realities. In one work, for example, a tattoo image is modified to read “occupied spaces,” placing the histories of Puerto Rico and Palestine in dialogue. In other works, seemingly lighthearted scenes operate as small capsules of memory: tributes to friendships, reflections on loss, or fragments drawn from the artist’s everyday life.
Despite these heavier references, the series retains a strong sense of play. Rivera Berrocales embraces absurdity and humor as part of his visual language. The cartoon universe allows him to address complex themes without abandoning a vibrant and accessible aesthetic. In this intersection between the childlike and the political, the paintings function simultaneously as critical commentary and playful gesture.
The artist’s practice also reflects a mode of thinking that moves across multiple references. Philosophy, conversations, popular culture, personal experiences, and global events intertwine within his creative process. Rivera Berrocales does not anchor himself to a single source of inspiration; instead, he consumes and connects ideas from different angles, allowing new associations to emerge organically. In Lo que trajo la ola, images arrive like fragments carried ashore, already charged with history, memory, and meaning. He collects them and applies his subtle intervention. That slight displacement, his 3% shift, is enough to transform familiar scenes into spaces where nostalgia, humor, and political consciousness coexist.
Lo que trajo la ola runs from March 26 to May 5th, 2026 at Sabroso! 802 Calle Corchado, Santurce, Puerto Rico.
