ARTIST STATEMENT


The contradictory nature of borders - what they reveal
and conceal, define and collapse, seems to exist at
the heart of Rafael E. Vera's work. Vera focuses
on constructing painted, diagrammatic configurations
inspired by the various environments that these
objects are to be contained in, and how the
distinctions between the forms and their surroundings
interrelate with one another and coalesce. Painting
and sculpture, as well as installation art and
photography, play roles in Vera’s exactingly
constructed settings. The overlapping of these
disciplines only seems to further complicate his
intentions, while delineating an engaging and
ambitious oeuvre.

It’s often the spaces in-between things that make for
some of the most fertile creative territory. The
dividing line itself, instead of the terrain that it
surrounds, is the place from which Rafael E. Vera makes
his point of departure. His forays into the notions
concerning the structures that build identity, place
or purpose reveal themselves slowly and indirectly -
making that experience an elegant and worthwhile one.


--Alex Jovanovich