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Rafael Yaluff 1983, Santiago de Chile

Bio

Rafael Yaluff is a visual artist whose recent practice focuses on painting, drawing, and printmaking as part of a single creative flow that unfolds in the space between the abstract and the figurative. · He began his artistic career painting landscapes en plein air in Chilean Patagonia, exploring the relationship between phenomenology and Impressionism. Over time, his practice evolved toward a deconstruction of the language of painting, informed by Expressionism, Pop, and Conceptual Art. His works, initially appearing abstract in their formal language, gradually reveal internal narratives constructed through humor and drama. · Rafael Yaluff has participated in international exhibitions and residencies across Latin America, Europe, Canada, and the United States. These include The Immigrant Artist Biennial (USA), Chilean Connection (Germany), Prayers (Canada), Karaoke (Portugal), Premio MAVI (Chile), and representing Chile at the Pan American Games in Toronto. His work has been exhibited at institutions including Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Denmark) and is held in collections in Chile, the United States, Canada, and Portugal. · He currently lives and works in Berlin.

Statement

Autistic Existentialism - Berlin, October 2026 I've been thinking about Andy Warhol’s mid 60’s period: Car crashes, suicides, race riots; Heavy stuff, but regardless of that, those paintings dont seem to pass judgement about it - Things are transported to the canvass: Here's an electric chair, what do you think?. This kind of attitude struck me as similar to the one in Duchamp’s Ready Mades, another transportation where things are brought to exist as they are and not as part of a narrative. This aspect of their work has been in the back of my mind for some time. ······ 2 ······ Today in Berlin I have time, my rent is very low (they are renovating the building where I live), the city is very silent, and even though sometimes after getting the news everything seems about to blow up (just like in the Weimar Republic - a period of the arts that don't cease to inspire me). In this city I can look at things, many of the things I look at have to do with war, many about people who seem to live without shields, social media: Porn, cooking, pets, trash & language. I suppose it's a mix like for everyone else. ······ 3 ······ I do my share of judging, or to put it in another way, I react just like most of us to whatever ticks my antenna, and the higher the moral pressure to have an opinion, the more difficult it gets to contemplate what I receive from the world, the more I'm forced to receive it. I think this reaction, the self involvement of my own judgement, fills me up with opinions and values. And regardless the stuffing: Whether it comes from me or whether it’s chumming from the vast landfill of commercial judgment around me. When I engage I engage in filling myself up, and this fullness asserts something, it brings me both heaves and comfort, a satisfaction, and then this fullness grounds me. ······ 4 ······ But what about a piece of work that keeps judgment in brackets? (like when I'm rooting for the psychopath in a movie). Some aspects of abstraction applied to narrative become useful for this purpose, the abstraction of self and its shape: Sometimes my work has the appearance of abstraction, but it is often at the service of a narrative and not a composition. Then the narrative stands behind its shape, its gives me space, it is a way for hardcore things to be present but not commanding, not assertive, not making a point, so the judgment is at least delayed for me and I allow myself an existential workflow, while there isn’t yet an defined subject matter to judge upon or demonstrate. In this state of mind I think things start to show, like a landscape in front of a plain air painter, a situation can also appear or be transported, commanded by its drama rather than its mandate, I think in this way work becomes a way to experience elsewhere. ······ 5 ······ I make drawings, paintings and sculptures, I look at funny situations that resist an accurate description, climaxes, paths that allow me to venture out of what I am. Work is that extasis, that's why some days I'm not Rafael, but Xoltz Popov, a russian somewhere in the past. If I was just being myself I would only be able to preach and I don't want to do that, because in myself there's nothing new for me, then maybe existentialism can keep my avant garde alive, either way I enjoy it.

Training

Master in Studio Arts Hunter College · 2021 - 2023 · New York (US)
Master in Philosophy (incomplete) Universidad Alberto Hurtado · 2008 - 2010 · Santiago (CL)
Bachelor's Degree in Art Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile · 2000 – 2005 · Santiago (CL)

Residencies

AIR 351 2018 · Cascais (PT) · http://air351.art
No Entuhlo – ARTWORKS 2018 · Porto (PT) · https://noentulho.com
Funkhaus 2011 · Berlín (DE) · http://www.funkhaus-berlin.net
Takt 2011 · Berlín (DE) · http://taktberlin.org

Exhibitions

Frodo in the Undying Lands Individual Show · 2026 · Culterim - Berlin (DE)
АМЕРИКА Individual Show · 2026 · Chashama - New York (US)
Fluid Mechanics Group show · 2025 · Deli Grocery - New York (US)
The New Pop Chilean Song Individual Show · 2024 · Colexion 33 - Santiago (CHI)
Conflictual Distance - The Immigrant Artist Biennial Group show · 2023 - 24 · EFA Project space - New York (US)
Worms, a good business model Group show · 2023 · Thesis show, Hunter College MFA. Hudson Gallery - New York (US)
Chilean Connection Group show · 2022 · MONOPOL - Berlin (DE)
Beauty at the Swamp's Center Group show · 2021 · Hunter College MFA - New York (US)
Hallway Paraphiliacs Group show with photographer Martin Parsekian · 2019 · 91 Dobbin - New York (US)
Prayers Individual Show · 2019 - 2020 · Corkin Gallery - Toronto (CA)
Karaoke Group show with artist Tiago Madaleno · 2018 · Otiima Artworks - Porto (PT)
The Blue Mask Individual Show · 2017 · Hashtag Gallery - Toronto (CA)
Rainforests Individual Show · 2015 · Columbus Centre - Toronto (CA)
MAVI & Minera Escondida prize: Young Contemporary Art Collective show · 2015 · Visual Arts Museum MAVI - Santiago (CL)
One More Year of Humor, and Then I'll Talk About War Individual Show · 2014 · Madhaus Gallery - Santiago (CL)
Pan/orama Collective show · 2014 · Daniels Spectrum Centre - Toronto (CA)
The Sun Individual Show · 2014 · TORP Inc. Showroom - Toronto (CA)
Wild Trash Individual Show · 2013 · Local Arte Contemporáneo - Santiago (CL)
Forårsudstilling 13: Spring Exhibition 13 Collective show · 2013 · Kunsthal Charlottenborg - Copenhagen (DK)
Paintings of the Chilean Patagonian Rainforest, Plein Air and in Big Format Individual Show · 2012 · MACCHINA Gallery - Santiago (CL)
Paintings of the Chilean Forest Individual Show · 2012 · Citi Gallery - Santiago (CL)
Funkhaus Colective Collective show · 2011 · Funkhaus Berlin - Berlin (DE)
Phenomenological Investigations, on the Impressionist Method of Claude Monet Individual Show · 2011 · Loreto Gallery - Santiago (CL)

Contact

ryaluff@gmail.com