Bio

Leo Rebolledo (1980), architect and self-taught painter born in Santiago, Chile, in the mist of the military dictatorship. Due to a shortage of culture and art in his surroundings during this agitated political and social climate, as a child Leo began to collect cutouts of paintings from the great Masters of Art History and he then tried to reproduce them as faithfully as possible. From an early age, he began to paint with whatever materials he could find. Using his school oil pastel crayons by rubbing them on scrap pieces of cardboard or wood, he attempted to mimic the finish of oil on canvas. This curiosity and interest to understand these basic materials developed into years of experimentation which resulted in the development of his own unique and unconventional technique. Leo´s technique takes the possibilities of the oil pastel crayon to the extreme, accomplishing fascinating results of texture, light, and color in all his works of art, achieving a realistic style and an expressiveness like that of oil on canvas.

Leo's decision to study Architecture brought him closer to art at a higher level. As a result of his professional training, Leo developed a fascination with light, form, and space. These concepts are implicit in his pictorial work and take center stage in his compositions.

Leo's work has been awarded in important competitions in California and New York and has settled permanently in the city of New Haven, Connecticut where he continues developing and perfecting his work.  

Statement

My pictorial proposal is to create an unfinished narrative through enigmatic and disturbing scenes, often dreamlike, endowed with a high psychological expressiveness.

My works are memories of things, subconscious impulses that I try to translate into images that attempt to unleash a dreamlike beauty, an apparent reality. They are recognizable and endearing places loaded with symbolism where elements converge that suggest disturbing and mysterious situations. The protagonists of my works are usually drawn from my own space and close environment, which gives my work a highly autobiographical content.

Through my art, I strive to express a variety of emotions and encourage the viewer to explore the depths of their own subconscious.

My realist style is influenced by many painters and styles, mainly linked to Renaissance and Baroque art, although I also use some contemporary references. My paintings are a reflection of my personal journey, a journey that is still continuing and evolving. By presenting an unfinished story, I invite the viewer to join me on this journey, to explore the mystery of the unknown and to embrace the beauty of the enigmatic.
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www.leorebolledo.com

When did you realize you wanted to pursue art professionally?

Although I am an architect by profession, I always dreamed of dedicating myself to art professionally. In my country of origin, Chile, the environment and the art market is quite small so I never thought about doing it except for myself, as a hobby. When I arrived in the United States, about four years ago, everything changed. I was always aware of the way art is appreciated here and I decided that the time had come to give my great passion a chance. I took advantage of the time of confinement in the middle of the pandemic to return to painting, my great passion, and I focused on perfecting everything I had learned years ago. The first time I showed my paintings was about a year ago, at an art festival in New Haven, Connecticut, thanks to my family who encouraged me to do it and the result was incredible. Seeing people enjoying my paintings was exciting and was undoubtedly what drove me to do it big. Since that moment only incredible things have happened, my work has been highlighted in important international competitions, I have achieved a couple of exhibitions with some of the greatest contemporary figurative painters and publications in prestigious magazines, all thanks to a combination of hard work and a lot faith.

Whether fellow artist or friend, who has continued to inspire your work?

Since I never had formal art studies, I also did not have much closeness with other painters. From a very young age I collected clippings of paintings by great Renaissance and Baroque masters and my painting has always had that influence as a basis. I also have great admiration for other great artists like Sargent or Sorolla, I always go to them. Nowadays I have found new sources of inspiration seeing the incredible work of several young contemporary artists whom I follow closely, such as Lo Chan-Peng and Guillermo Lorca, but it is something rotating and changing, it depends a lot on the moment I am in. Many times, I have gotten inspiration in a gallery looking at someone’s new work or sometimes flipping through an art magazine. Other times not even that, just looking out the window at something that catches my attention. I think it is very important to be open to new ideas, new stimuli, and not always use the same references.

What do you enjoy exploring through your art?

My exploration permanently has two paths, one that has to do with technique and the other with narrative. Regarding technique, my work focuses on continuing to discover the possibilities of oil pastel, a medium with which I work in all my works and which has accompanied me since I was a child. There is not much literature about it, unlike other more traditional mediums such as oil on canvas, watercolor, or its direct brother, soft pastel. For some reason oil pastel was always used as a medium for sketching and its expression was limited to that way of using it. You can see a work by Degas for example, who was one of the most virtuoso of oil pastel and you will notice that the strokes are hard and fast, with not very defined shapes. My painting takes the expression and technique of oil on canvas (I, like many, learned to paint with that medium in my beginnings) and I try to generate paintings with a realistic technique, very detailed, but with oil pastel. With the naked eye you wouldn't notice the difference unless you get very close. You would be impressed if you knew the amount of things I have discovered, it takes years of exploration.  

My other avenue of exploration is through the narrative of my work. I try to build enigmatic, disturbing and surreal stories, endowed with a psychological and disconcerting expressiveness that invites the viewer to complete the scene. I like to leave clues, certain “pending things” that make people interact with my paintings and form their own stories.

Looking back, what advice do you wish you could give your younger self?

From a very young age I always had a concern about finances, which stopped my desire to be an artist. As I said at the beginning, in Chile, my country of origin, being a painter was always a very risky bet. This is how I, like many, ended up studying a more “secure” career in economic terms. In Chile, no one talks to you about talent, that's why everyone ends up studying careers that don't have much to do with what they really love. If I had to give myself some advice when I was young, it would be this: believe more in that inner impulse that gives you light on the correct path. And now I know with certainty that there is no mistake when you feel passionate about something. However, I think that things are never black or white and everything happens for a reason. I was lucky that the career I chose, to my great surprise, had a lot of art and I ended up learning many things that I apply in my painting today. Thanks to this I have a lot of knowledge of form, light, and space — elements that I always try to incorporate in my compositions. Everything is useful, nothing is lost.

What is one thing you hope your audience walks away with after experiencing/viewing your work?

I have always believed that a painting is a window to another place, I like to think about that every time I paint. I like to observe people looking at my works and trying to put together their own story with what is presented to them. It is difficult to put together stories through a static image so I take it as a challenge. I love the concept of “open ending” and I try to apply it to my work, which is why my scenes are loaded with symbolism and disconcerting situations that invite the viewer to interact with the painting. Like a good book, I want to make people who see one of my paintings feel a first impact that catches them; have a moment of reflection and development of ideas and then, in an altered way, try to find their own outcome against what they are witnessing. That this search is enduring or changing, that in some way what I suggest to them as an artist intersects with the personal and visual experience of each person.