Alvaro Rodrigo

It must be acknowledged that, until recently, the concept of painting and art for Phoenix Arts, as a manufacturer of Fine Arts materials, was based on traditional painting, the use of canvas, the stretched frame in various shapes and formats, rigid supports like plastered or natural wood, hard paper or stretched cardboard, and traditional pads. Of course, it is obvious, there are additional techniques such as crafts, DIY, or even digital art that, for now, we have not touched on at Artista de La Estación. However, everything comes in time. Society evolves, and so do we.

For this reason, what better than autumn, the season of change, to modify and expand our vision of art and focus it, this time, on the mural as a medium. Therefore, we have contacted Álvaro Rodrigo, a Spanish muralist artist living in Chile for about 10 years, to present us with some of his fantastic works, located on the walls of houses or buildings, bridges, company façades, or street walls in major cities such as Barcelona and Madrid. Álvaro, although he also works in illustration, lives for the wall, and is a member of theInternational Collective of Pangea Muralists.

Talking with Álvaro Rodrigo is a real pleasure. He conveys excitement for his work, his hobby, his passion, his way of life. Our mural artist explains to us the advantages and disadvantages of the support he works with. The risks of his works becoming ephemeral, and the challenge of keeping them alive against the harshness of nature, human behavior, or the urban planning needs of society. Consequently, Álvaro Rodrigo tells us that 'the creative process of my work is worth more than the result itself,' breaking down the myths and weaknesses that the technique of exterior murals may have, in an elegant, optimistic, and constructive way. Passion for art.

We haven't mentioned Álvaro's father,Felipe Rodrigo. Visit their Instagram. However, we leave a sample of their painting based on the technique of action painting or drip, abstract expressionism. Some work of Álvaro Rodrigo pays tribute to their father.

Instagram

Half of what you hear – 2021 35 x 50 cm – mixed media on paper

I am Álvaro Rodrigo, a mural artist, a Madrid native living in La Serena, Chile, since 2012. The beginnings of my professional career —2005— were through advertising painting on shutters, internal or external walls of businesses in northern Madrid. Although we must not forget the first 'graffitis' made on urban spaces, where the search for style and identity was my artistic drive back in 1998.

I collaborate with NGOs to rescue the natural and historical heritage of the regions through mural art.

I quickly left the world of 'Graffiti' to fully immerse myself in the urban environment until the present day. During this period of time, I have gone through artistic processes that sought to interact with passersby by delivering a direct message, more than the pursuit of aesthetic, compositional, color, etc., values, until now combining the concept of the message with enhancing the architecture of the place. A series of murals is defined with the purpose of disseminating content of a mainly scientific nature and even strictly infomural.

In the present work, in a collaborative manner with NGOs and other types of organizations, to rescue the natural and historical heritage of a region through murals and all its creative/community process.

Parallel to all this, I have created the label 'Álvaro Rodrigo Studio', where through Fine Art reproductions and illustrations, I show the result of an internal process. Art, science, and positioning within society come together to deliver a universal message: to know in order to protect.

Finally, I develop personal work in mixed media —acrylic aerosol, synthetic, plastic paint, pigments, watercolor, acrylics, etc.— using black or white color on a white or black background respectively. The project, 'painting on white' or 'painting on black,' where the lights and shadows reveal the roughness of life: how we illuminate our shadows, there is no going back, no eraser, each stroke is unique, final, and unrepeatable. There is no correction.

On the wall I like to use a black or white acrylic spray with a wide nozzle —from 1 to 15 cm—, playing with transparencies, the medium, and above all, the atmosphere that surrounds it: noise, cars, people, wind…