SAN JUAN, PR.- Walter Otero Contemporary Art presents Rafael Vega’s first solo exhibition on view March 13 – April 30, 2014 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Rafael (b. 1979) native from Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, lives and works in New York, graduated with a M.F.A, Painting and Drawing, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2012.
In his recent work Vega plays with questions regarding the facture of painting and its material surface. In working with recurring methodology and fixed formats such as limited palette, gradations, and saw cuts, Vega’s paintings remain experimental. As Barry Schwabsky argues in his essay “Rafael Vega: Beyond Literalism”:
“[…] While each of his paintings clearly relates to the others as diverse manifestations of a single project, he is not just exhausting all the possible variants on a predefined paradigm; he is not establishing an identity by painting the same painting over and over again, or providing so many illustrations of a single idea. Instead, each painting feels like it points, from one center, toward other territories that Vega may or may not choose to explore more thoroughly as he continues to make his way across the ever-problematic, sometimes downright treacherous terrain of painting.”
Every work oscillates between two antithetical modes, without ever becoming entirely one or the other. On the one hand, they offer a palpable tactility that emphasizes painting’s physical object-hood, while on the other; they become dematerialized surface marks that affirm notions of flatness and opticality. For Rafael Vega, the act of painting becomes a discrete zone of tension and a terse essay about unresolved possibilities. Barry Schwabsky, “Rafael Vega: Beyond Literalism” in Arte al Dia (online), January 18, 2013.
Vega’s work has been included in several national and international shows and fairs like: PINTA-NY, Walter Otero Contemporary Art Gallery (2013), Chaco13: Contemporary Art Fair, Walter Otero Contemporary Art Gallery, Chile (2013), Guided by Invoices Gallery, New York, NY (2012), Sullivan Galleries,Chicago, IL (2012), Circa 10 International Art Fair. (2010); and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD). As well, was featured in The New York Times, Modern Painters, Arte Al Dia Magazine, New American Paintings, among other publications.
Rafael Vega recent work will be in display until April 30 in Walter Otero Contemporary Art (WOCA) in San Juan.
