Casa Lagorce Miami is extremely pleased to introduce, for the first time in the USA, a series of works by London based
painter Rodolfo Villaplana, an artist who has been celebrated as someone who “is obviously destined for high places”
by MOCA London director. A number of works premiered at his solo show in MOMA Tbilisi are shown here alongside
his most recent oils on canvas.
An Egyptian themed party in a Turin discotheque becomes the perfect background for unveiling Villaplana’s startling
ability to look beyond appearances. Artificial lights and characters shrouded in multi-layered shadows, like figures
from a Balzacian theater of life, have a visual impact that defies schematic interpretation. In MY LIFE Villaplana claims
his part of the cake: He devours the life he sees around him and adds to the normal the ecstasies of his vision, plunging
us into different states of mind that range from reflection to unconsciousness; all tamed by the power of his
unconventional pursuit of beauty in everyday life.
Strong, elusive portraiture and carnal flowers are combined with bold, erratic stripes. There are choral human scenes,
made from perfect cut-out compositions, where hierarchies are well established to the delight of those whose interest
is centered on understanding Power and how it works.
MY LIFE is a sort of personal diary where painting reaches hallucination, where reality becomes a glass raised in revelry!
A homage to Life, with all its lights and shadows, as the poem suggests. A goblet making a toast with its own
reflection: You cannot perceive the echo of that resonant chime except on the other side of the mirror, on Villaplana’s
mesmerizing canvases

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rodolfo Villaplana is a Venezuelan Hispanic figurative artist based in London and Antibes, who completed his MA
studies at the Chelsea College of Art in 2013. Ever since Villaplana’s success grows at an impressive pace. After having
been endorsed by the Young Masters Art Prize 2013 panel, he showed his work at the London Art Fair and PINTA
international Art Fair in London in 2013. The year after he participated in the Art Venice Biennale, and held a solo show
in MOMA Tbilisi that, due to popularity was extended until January 2016. The same year he was chosen to represent
the UK in the Iranian Biennale of Art. In 2017, Villaplana had two solo exhibitions at D Contemporary in Mayfair. The
next big step in this mid-career artist will be the solo show Installations – Portraying the Object at the MMOMA in
Moscow in 2019.
His success has allowed the artist to gather a passionate following of supporters and collectors that began in the UK
and has spread across several capital cities in Europe. As a result, Rodolfo Villaplana has developed an own and very
personal style and technique that is similar to no other and makes his artworks immediately recognizable if one has the
pleasure to stand in front of one of his paintings.
The art critic, curator, and one of the directors of the Hermitage Foundation Thierry Morel (2016) describes his
technique: “Villaplana deploys with his brush a wide-ranging symphony of hues and colors with uncompromising
courage verging on brutality […]. The rough and earthy texture of his oil paint seeks to defy the limitations imposed by
the two-dimensional image […].” While the curator Gaia Simionati (2015) compares the artist with Pontormo,
Rembrandt, Titian, and Rothko, for his combination of figurative and expressionist traditions in his paintings.
In his own words: “Although I don’t follow strict aesthetic rules, I put a lot of thought before I start painting. Once the
idea starts to form in my head I rigorously order and juxtapose the different elements that compose the final piece.
However, I am always guided by an unconscious voice that echoes my practice. I believe that the tension many people
see in my works is due to this dissonance in my creative process that is always created at the edge of error.”