Rodolfo Oviedo Vega

Born in San Salvador, Oviedo Vega has travelled all over the world, absorbing experiences and artistic influences that are sometimes reflected in his work, and living for a time in southern India and later Paris, where he lives and works today. His paintings are often better described as mixed-media collages, incorporating materials including sand, coconut bark, banana leaves and red wine.

The art of Rodolfo Oviedo Vega is one of paradox and certain contradictions. His paintings can seem at first glance to be heavy, even opaque on the canvas, yet on closer inspection they became surprisingly varied in their textures. Parts of some works have an appealing heft, with collage elements and layers of oil paint worked into a thick impasto, while others can seem as light and delicate as fallen leaves.

His compositions can seem purely abstract, and his basic visual language has remained rooted in abstraction for most of his career. Yet figuration keeps poking through in ways that give his work complexity and an enigmatic charm. The abstract forms of some works recall portraiture, while the perspectives and horizon line in others harks back to the landscape-painting tradition.

Architectural elements frequently appear in Oviedo Vega’s work – railings, windows, arches, often in sombre colours that emphasise their geometric armatures – and show his interest in urban space and construction. Far from pure abstraction, these works often lead us into explorations of the aesthetic possibilities of buildings, with their multiple planes and volumes, and the architectural forms of contemporary cities, which, in Oviedo Vega’s hands, can look familiar to any city dweller yet also strange and even a bit alienating.

This engagement with urban architecture also suggests a connection to his native El Salvador, the most urbanised country of Latin America. Oviedo Vega inhabits and plays out these contradictions in his work, without – to his great credit as an artist – ever trying to resolve them into neat packages, creating instead works that are complex, multi-layered and deeply human.