Rafael Ferrer at Castillo.

The recent works from Rafael Ferrer, in this case painting on paper bags, that will arrive at the David Castillo Gallery this Saturday have been a long time coming.

The Puerto Rican native (and incidentally, the younger brother of the 1950s actor Jose Ferrer) began his prolific artistic career with conceptual installations in New York in the late 1960s, involving ice blocks and leaves. But his first vocation and love was music, especially Afro-Cuban drumming. In other words, Ferrer’s influences and artistic vehicles have been varied and broad, making him an artist who has been hard to categorize over the decades. Although his work has appeared in solo shows across the globe and is part of numerous international collections, his eclectic output seemed to fall out of favor for a time – that is, until recent years.

Rafael Ferrer.

In 2010, El Museo del Barrio In New York gave him a big retrospective, followed by a survey of his works on paper at Pennsylvania’s Lancaster Museum, and this year a monograph of the body of his art was released. He will be highlighted this summer and fall in Venice.

This should be a well-received rediscovery.

Along with painting and installation, Ferrer has worked with large public sculptures and small drawings, with tell-tale signs of his native Caribbean roots infusing many of the pieces.

At Castillo, along with dozens of paper bag works, the exhibition will include Empire’s Mirror (2012), “an intense work examining the historical and interpreting the current state of the artist’s birthplace, Puerto Rico. The piece is composed of 95 blackboard paintings and incorporates his punditry,” according to the gallery.

Let’s hope this town continues to embrace mature work by long-emerged artists, a needed balance that we can only benefit from.

“Rafael Ferrer: Recent Work” opens on Jan. 10 and runs through Feb. 23 at the David Castillo Gallery, 2234 NW 2nd Ave., Miami;  305-573-8110; www.davidcastillogallery.com.