Rafael Yaluff

Visual description: Fragments of posters and black figures using loose brushstrokes of acrylic and oil are painted, while streaks of yellows and blue pierce the middle and upper right ground of the rectangular stretched canvas. On one painted poster image the word “Noviembre” and numerals representing calendar days are visible, in other painted posters images, only the semblance of words are discernable. Overall, it is as if the figurative image dissolves into abstraction.   

Wall Text: Between 2019 and 2022, Chilean society across social strata amalgamated in a common desire for change—the nationwide social movement of riots called Estallido Social or Social Outburst was motivated by inequality, rising costs of living, decreasing pensions, and indigenous grievances. Throughout the Social Outburst the capital Santiago's downtown infrastructure was heavily intervened in; the city became covered by graffiti and a diverse array of posters each expressing heterogeneous claims for change. As the protests advanced, posters were torn down and the colors faded from those that remained. “They became specters of their former selves, like ghosts pasted on the city walls,” Rafael Yaluff explains. The riots resulted in the forming of a new constitution that was rejected by popular vote. Today, far-right conservatives govern the country. Looking at these vestiges of the dreams of change, Yaluff reflects on the structure of Latin American politics, where revolutionary and counter-revolutionary waves succeed each other.

About

Rafael Yaluff is a Chilean artist, born in Santiago de Chile in 1983. He graduated from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile with a bachelor in arts (2005) and studied philosophy at Universidad Alberto Hurtado (2008), before embarking upon a series of painting expeditions to Patagonia, where he set out to explore the relationship between impressionism and phenomenology. After these initial years working in isolation he returned to his hometown Santiago and soon after began a somewhat nomadic life outside Chile, taking him to Germany, Canada, Portugal, and America. Participating in national and international shows, amongst others the Spring Exhibition at Kunsthal Charlottenborg (Copenhagen), MAVI young contemporary art (Santiago) and representing Chile for the PanAmerican games in Toronto. Over the years nomadism has informed his work, which is explored through subjects such as homelessness and tragic-comedy. Doubt, from an existential perspective in a nihilistically-contested area of meaning within the field of extended painting has become his current area of exploration. Yaluff recently graduated from the MFA Program at Hunter College of Art in NYC, where he currently lives.