Composition I, 2020

José Rodríguez  

Jose Rodriguez is one of Bolivia´s premier watercolorists and recognized around the world as a major figure for Latin American watercolor art. Born in Cochabamba, Bolivia, in 1958, he started his formal training in the arts at the age of 10, in the workshop of German Olivera O. Del; where his discovery of watercolor as his media of choice to exploit and complement his creative potential, fortunately, marked a point of no return for his artistic career. 

Today, with a legacy of 50 years cultivating the water medium, José Rodriguez continues to dazzle art lovers with his approaches to masterfully capture the intensity of light and shade. Beyond the technical qualities of his work, which are staggering, José Rodriguez has managed to create a singular language, that uses the intrinsic properties of watercolor to merge elements of costumbrism with surrealism, with themes that approach a pictorial parallel of Latin American literary magical realism. He brings to life subjective and imaginary elements with social critique in the background of the traditional Andean rural and urban landscapes. In other works, he exposes the constant struggles of our human condition as perpetual migrants confronted with the loneliness of an uncertain universe in constant change.

He has exhibited his works throughout the Americas and Europe, and has received multiple awards and recognitions, among others the highest honor awarded to a watercolorist in Mexico, The Tracuilo Award in 2008. His crusade to promote watercolor has led him to train a new generation of young watercolorists in Latin America. His ability to teach is acclaimed by fellow watercolorists worldwide, as it can be confirmed by the multiple demonstrations, lectures, and forums to which he has been invited, in particular through the International Watercolor Society of which he is an active member and current president of the Bolivian Chapter. He is also the creator of the first international event devoted solely to watercolor in Bolivia: The Biennial Kipus Bolivia Hearth of South America. Two editions of this biennial have successfully taken place under his leadership.

A master of the medium, and an undisputable figure in Latin American art. José Rodríguez, continues to push the boundaries of what watercolor can be.