The departure point for Raúl Illarramendi’s work is the observation of “traces” left by human activity in the everyday urban milieu. Found on walls, sidewalks, gateways and doorways, these traces are photographed and chosen for their compositional and power to evoke. The artist thus accumulates a repertory of images that serve as inspiration for his compositions. Illarramendi applies coloured pencil on a canvas that has previously been prepared with gouache, a mixed technique that combines drawing with painting and vice versa. The artist conceives these works as non-drawings: The work is composed of lines that suddenly appear in the un-penciled spaces, thus revealing the foundation of the canvas. His series are all the product of a continuous reflection; the representation of a false hue, of a false fluidity, of a false rhythm and a false event.
Born in 1982 in Caracas, Venezuela, Raúl Illarramendi began his artistic training in 1998 as assistant to the painter Felix Perdomo. He then became a member of the Circulo de Dibujo of the Contemporary Art Museum of Caracas Sofia Imber. He followed studies in Visual Arts and Art History at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville in the United States. He has won several art awards in the United States and France, the most recent of which being the Jean Chevalier Award for Painting in Lyon, which he received in 2012. Illarramendi lives and works in Méru, France.
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