Solo Show: Raf Reyes

Raf Reyes started as a self-taught artist. He met his first success on social networks, where he still broadcasts his creations and messages today.
Photographer and digital creator, the uniqueness of Raf's art lies in his permanent search for innovation, and his rejection of rules. Press plates, collages, photos, paintings, quotations, are all characteristic elements of his digital compositions.
Raf overturns notions of rigidity, conventional artistic norms, and explores emerging trends in digital art.
Pushing back the limits of his digital mastery, Raf Reyes undoubtedly elevates digital art to the same level as traditional art forms.
Raf Reyes is also a committed artist: his work is the manifesto of his temperament as a man of action, and makes him a resolutely contemporary artist.

Raf Reyes

Lezioni Florentine, 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 204 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Raf Reyes is a master storyteller. His works always tell stories in which his own reflection on art, his overflowing imagination and the essence of the works he diverts, all merge together. Lezioni Fiorentine is Raf Reyes' first triptych, a format that the artist is particularly fond of because of the progression, almost narrative, that it allows. This triptych is based on The Payment of the Tribute (1420), a Florentine fresco by the great master Masaccio. By exploring the Renaissance, its inventions, progress and excesses, Raf Reyes questions and challenges our world.
In his Florentine Lesson, Raf questions the place of money and religion in society, blurring temporal boundaries to give his work a universal scope. The artist gives this biblical scene a surrealist and satirical dimension by including ultra-modern elements, characteristic of his artistic identity. The apostles talk to each other in slang and send text messages; St. Peter is transformed into a Japanese fish seller while Jesus accepts digital payments.

Raf Reyes

Epic. Dramatic!, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

81 x 110 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Raf Reyes offers a reinterpretation of the myth of Judith and Holofernes - an episode particularly exploited by 17th century European painting and notably represented by Caravaggio. The complexity of Judith's emotions that Raf shows questions more widely the motivations for acting, free will and understanding.

Raf Reyes

Home Sweet Home, 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

110 x 110 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

In Home Sweet Home, Raf Reyes tells the story of a life, the need to thrive in a nervous, hectic world, in a constant state of change and disarray. The work also tells of the search for an inner peace inherited by humans, without which they cannot build a home. The fragments of Rubens and Raf's self-portraits raise questions of identity: do we exist independently of our history, of our heritage? In the end, the artist chooses a vision of home as an inner world, an almost unshakeable citadel, where everyone can build their own kingdom.

Raf Reyes

Eden (Lost World), 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 90 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

The central characters of Eden are taken from Rubens and Brueghel the Elder's painting The Garden of Eden and Original Sin (1617). This work draws a modern version of the lost paradise in which pride, greed, and the desire for power are sketched out. In this world apart, fauna and flora cohabit peacefully with humans, perfection frees itself from standards, love is the currency of exchange and freedom the watchword. The distant world of Raf Reyes reconciles living reigns, temporalities and differences.

Raf Reyes

Meanwhile in Arcadia, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

78 x 110 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Against the backdrop of Poussin's work, Raf draws his lost paradise, his imaginary Arcadia. The work wants to be the mirror of the trajectories, the paths travelled, the obstacles on the road, the guides... In the Arcadia of Raf Reyes, the individuals have all the right to exist, and everything has a reason to exist.

Raf Reyes

Leda, 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 90 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

This work is inspired by the myth of Leda, a mortal woman seduced by Zeus while he has the appearance of a swan. From this union were born Hélène and Pollux. The painting thus preaches mixing and celebrating differences. Like the children of Leda and Zeus, and like the various mediums used by Raf, it is sometimes from the most singular associations that the most beautiful things are born.

Raf Reyes

Pygmalion, 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 90 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

The work represents the mythological figure of Pygmalion in his quest for true love and unattainable perfection. Divine figures elevate art and love to the rank of spiritualities, the artist's hands shape their emblems, while the myth of Pygmalion reminds us of the artist's will to survive his time.

Raf Reyes

Family, 2019

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 90 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

The vision of Raf Reyes' family is nourished by love and strength. Like a Moaï statue, powerful and unshakeable, the blood ties seem unbreakable. The artist explores in this work the notions of heritage, memory and transmission. This quest is materialized by the multiple references to other creators, placing Raf Reyes within a large family: that of artists.

Raf Reyes

Wisdom/Wonder, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

90 x 144 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Depicting here Phryne before the Areopagus, Raf Reyes explores in this work the dichotomies - calm and heresy, faith and ungodliness, the carnal and the spiritual, the individual and the crowd - thus questioning Manichaeism. Wisdom would flow from perpetual questioning, from wonder rather than judgment, from reflection rather than certainties.

Raf Reyes

Keep Com(b)ing, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

110 x 155 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Keep Com(b)ing: This work is an ode to perseverance, hard work and resilience. In this warm early afternoon scene, women are the central subjects of the work. Standing, sitting, crouching, they are proud and diligent. The silence of the protagonists is only apparent, as Raf's layers and flat surfaces multiply, the dialogues are re-established.

Raf Reyes

Moonshine/Moonchild, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

106 x 94 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

With this reference to John Singer Sargent's Carnation, Lily, Lily Rose, Raf Reyes tries to transcribe the contrary winds that move us in his work.
The artist's typographical marks clash with the subtle flowery harmony of the work, like so many contradictions in a dreamy spirit.

Raf Reyes

The Intimacy of the Moment, 2020

Plexicollage on aluminum,

110 x 72 cm

Edition of 3 (+ 2 a.p.)

Using the characters of Degas, the "painter of dancers", Raf Reyes re-contextualizes a timeless work. In the work, the paint strokes of yesterday and the pretty lace garments confront the animal kingdom, where flamingos, dolphins and butterflies gracefully fly and swim between the dancers' taut and lax bodies.