"OF LOVE AND ITS DEMONS..." from 16 to 28 December 1998

GALLERY OF THE FRENCH ALLIANCE, Iquitos - Peru

LANDSCAPES OF THE SOUL

Unamuno says in his book entitled "The tragic feeling of life,"
Man is nothing but a rational being and a sentimental animal. It seems that under this premise, Rafo's paintings again focus on the human being in its immense sentimental complexity.

This time the painter guides its theme toward couple relationships and thus so by focusing on his own experience. However, in the series of paintings that he presents in this second individual exhibit, he brings back some topics related to marginality and other topics on mythic characters from stories and legends. All of these topics arise from his own experiences, first to his long preparation to become an actor, still in practice and which has been linked to social work; and then to the work that he has been performing lately, deep in the jungle in the various communities and villages.

In order to enter into his own introspection, Rafo is best helped by color and formats. As the product of a preparation away from academic parameters, his spontaneous traces and light brush strokes find enough room to move about in large formats, paradoxically at ease, one by one his paintings acquire a personal color. At times they are bright and open and others, dark..."

As the young painter he is, his work shows intense dialectic, adds or removes from the existing one. He does all of this in order to arrive at a manifestation.
In order to free himself, he tried to find informalism in the way he proposes and paints. His work, then, becomes more of an expression of an idea and not in the work himself. We are sure that continuity of his work will award it the rightful equilibrium.

Beyond these words, Rafo's exhibit shows again his search for questions and findings.

You, who read this text and see the exhibit, have the last word.

César Ching Ruíz
Plastic artist and scenographist