Rubén Rodrigo

Color, purity, chance, and spirituality. Rubén Rodrigo presents his latest work, "Sumi_RGB," a series of large-format pieces produced thanks to the prestigious VEGAP grant, now simultaneously exhibited at CASTELLANA 22 and the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid). Pure painting.

In Rubén Rodrigo's work (Salamanca, 1980), there has always been a tendency towards improvisation and controlled chance. His latest series, "Sumi_RGB," on display at CASTELLANA 22 until October 15th, seeks the maximum purity of color through large-format diptychs and triptychs where the paint, in a very liquid state, drips and spreads across the canvas. An improvisational process that becomes a rule.

Starting from a single stroke, as described by the Japanese term that names the exhibition, "sumi-e," the artist undergoes a staining process that generates a chromatic vibration variable according to the background's luminosity. The basic colors chosen by the artist — red, green, and blue — correspond to the RGB (red, green, and blue) acronym of the computer color language by light addition, a poetic nod by combining two concepts as distant as the millenary tradition of Oriental painting and the color laws that occur on digital screens and television. "There's deception in the title of the series, a trompe-l'oeil that makes us rethink painting, reconsider its limits, and those of our gaze as artists or spectators," comments Rubén Rodrigo.

More interested in ancient painting than contemporary and in classical artists than modern ones, the artist faces in this work one of the oldest problems that painting has presented: that of background and figure. In the exhibition, one can see how the works are an exercise in veiling over a slightly tinted background, where monochromatic stains converge on top of each other, overlapping on a background and contour. "It's a problem of painting since its inception, not something of today. For me, it's a universal problem that the painter has always faced. From the moment you put a splash of color on a white canvas, you've already generated a problem, an impact that needs to be related to the rest... and for me, that's pure painting."

A graduate in Fine Arts (99-04) from the University of Salamanca and a Master's in Cultural Management and Historical Heritage (06-07) from Iart in Madrid, Rubén Rodrigo has lived and worked in Madrid since 2006. Awarded a scholarship in 2005 by the Antonio Gala Foundation for young creators, he has exhibited his work since then in Brussels, Berlin, Coimbra, Castelo Branco, Madrid, and Salamanca, among other Spanish capitals. He has presented his latest projects, "Sombras de ceniza" and "Piel de hiena," at Espacio Valverde and La Fábrica, respectively. His latest series, "Sumi_RGB," was awarded by VEGAP in the 2016 Proposals competition and exhibited simultaneously at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid and at CASTELLANA 22 in September 2017.