Wayfinders: Work by the Island Steering Committee

 

Rafael Hernandez Vargas

About the Artist

Rafael began his artistic training at the Central School of Visual Arts in Santurce. He pursued visual arts at Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, pausing his studies to work as a lighting technician in theater and commercial events. His practice spans digital art, painting, drawing, and traditional printmaking techniques such as intaglio. Between 2004 and 2005, he participated in both solo and group exhibitions. He later entered the television industry, working in graphic design. Rafael continues to explore the intersection of analog and digital processes, combining hand-drawn and painted elements with digital tools to expand his visual language.

Artist Statement

My practice begins with free gesture and accident as catalysts for form and meaning. Through drawing, painting, and digital media, I explore how stains and errors open portals to the unconscious, revealing structures unplanned but deeply felt. I work intuitively, allowing the process to guide the image, as if each stroke responds to an internal need to organize chaos.I live and create from an island I sometimes feel connected to and other times estranged from. This paradox manifests in stains and visual fragments that form an emotional map.

 

Artist:

Rafael Hernandez Vargas
Photo of artist Rafael Hernandez Vargas

Social media: @fictoris

Exhibition

Wayfinders: Work by the Island Steering Committee

A face emerges from undulating waves and bubbles

A LA DERIVA, HACE FALTA UN MOTÍN MENTAL
Mezzotint
11.5″ x 14.5″
2025

Layers of patterned mark making obscure a figure with head in its hands.

LAMENTO
Drypoint
6” x 8”
2017

A composite creature made up of a a combination of natural, indigenous, and manufactured forms sucks up resources while being fed cash.

DEVASTADOR
Drypoint
14” x 18”
2019

A spindly birdlike figure composed of mechanical parts stands on a textured ground

MOSQUITO VER. 30.518
Drypoint
18”X14”
2019

clouds and detritus seem to form a skull wearing a wide hat.

LO QUE QUEDA
Drypoint
8” x 6”
2025

a flower and surrounding foliage fill this small intaglio

PIE DE CABRA
Drypoint
8” x 6”
2021

A mass of detritus and pollution seems to form a human face

LA DESTRUCCIÓN
Drypoint
8” x 6”
2025

A pod like form bursts forth exposing a coil of hair or root creating a diagonal composition

CERATIUM
Intaglio
15” x 12”
2019

An abstract robotic figure stands in a textured ground

AUTOMATIZADO
Drypoint and collagraph
17” x 15”
2019

A busy textured composition with a composite creature of human and robotic parts

A.E.S VER.5.367
Drypoint
18” x 14”
2019