Interview with Rafa de Corral. Ximo Rochera. For the cultural magazine Canibaal.

Interview with Rafa de Corral. Ximo Rochera. For the cultural magazine Canibaal.

Biography: Rafa de Corral was born in Bilbao in 1967. After completing his degree in Fine Arts in Bilbao, he moved to London, where he taught painting while also holding exhibitions. Later, in Spain, he settled in Valencia. At this point, he became part of a circuit of national galleries where he regularly exhibited, in addition to institutional exhibitions. He has been awarded national and international prizes and has held numerous exhibitions both within and outside of Spain, in cities such as Paris, London, Frankfurt, Verona, Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Valencia, and Bilbao.

Notable Solo Exhibitions:

  • Convent Spai d’art, Volum, Villareal, Castellón.
  • CTAV, Formas sobre cartón, Valencia.
  • Sala Lametro, Estructuras razonadas, Valencia.
  • Galería Punto, Quietud fingida, Valencia.
  • Sala Barbasán, Extensión de la razón, CAI, Zaragoza.
  • Museu de la Rajoleria, Estructuras tangentes a la realidad, Valencia.
  • La Llotgeta, CAM, La ciudad interior, Valencia.
  • Cité Universitaire, Casa de España, La civilización precipitada, París.
  • Sala de Exposiciones Renfe, Fragmentos Urbanos, Valencia.
  • I.V.A.M, Valencia, London Strand, City of nobody, London.

Notable Group Exhibitions and International Fairs:

  • II Premio Fundación Cañada Blanch, La NAU, Valencia.
  • Arteando, International Fair, Galería C-6, Irún.
  • International Exhibition, Metros de creatividad, Italy, Germany, Spain.
  • Sala Luzán, El paisaje en la colección CAI, Zaragoza.
  • Art-Madrid, Contemporary Art Fair, Galería Alonso Vidal.
  • Arte Lisboa, Contemporary Art Fair, Galería Alonso Vidal, Portugal.
  • Arte Santander, Contemporary Art Fair, Galería Alonso Vidal.
  • Valencia Art, Hotel Astoria, Galería Punto, Valencia.
  • Art Fair in Knocke, Belgium.
  • Kunst in der stadt, Frankfurt, Germany, 1st Prize.

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Rafa de Corral

Ximo Rochera: Rafa, the first thing we notice at Canibaal when we see your work is the tremendous effort behind it. All those years of experience are transmitted day by day with each brushstroke. However, in your early years, you also made short films; in fact, you were awarded the Kiov 548 in 1999, Between Vigil and Dream, at the 14th edition of the Cinema Jove festival and at the Sangió video festival in Verona. Do you think that experience in the audio-visual medium is too far behind to revisit?

Rafa de Corral: In 1997, when I graduated in Fine Arts, I specialized in both painting and audio-visuals. So, before moving to London, where I lived for a year, I made a short film, and yes, it was awarded and screened in various places on the big screen until it was bought by a television network. We shot it in super-eight... it was hard work because the characters were clay figures, and we animated them at sixteen frames per second. Nearly two years of shooting for four minutes. Madness!! I've never stopped flirting with images and sound. In fact, a couple of years ago, I worked on a project with a composer and musician friend, Marcos R. Conde. It involved bringing a series of ten paintings of impossible figures to life within an axis of axial symmetry. The pieces were created in advance, and then we synchronized music composed specifically for each piece. The effect was very powerful as it created multiple impossible figures that moved through an animation process synchronized with the audio. This work was selected for the "Volums" arts festival in Villareal, alongside an exhibition of large-format paintings. We then took it to various spaces for greater exposure, and eventually, we uploaded it to the internet, where it's now accessible to any user.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhBu-nkRCeA

X.R.: In your early exhibitions, we could see cities and skies. Later, you eliminated the city, leaving behind architectural structures and removing some of the background. After that, the works stopped suggesting building forms and started describing "difficult" geometric shapes with a more austere background. In your recent exhibition at Sporting Russafa, it's striking that you've removed color and placed yourself within your pieces, focusing on capturing light and definitively abandoning the background. Could we say that the artist has been engulfed by his own work?

Rafa de Corral: I think synthesis is a natural process in the field of creativity. Naturally, you try to distill the essence, focusing on the most important elements to communicate the overarching objective of each piece more clearly and directly. In my case, the deserted cities gradually left behind all urban furniture, lampposts, benches, traffic lights, they initially dissolved in the mist... then only the structures remained in increasingly clean spaces. This recent exhibition, titled "INSIDE," is more of a parenthesis, with a greater degree of synthesis, as the viewer's subjective perspective is placed inside the structures, and the reduction of the palette to black and white makes it even more powerful.

 

Inside.
Introspección.Grafito sobre tabla tratada.150 x 180 cm. 2017

 

X.R.: Did the process of creating these works involve a very challenging process of introspection, or could you easily step away from the works once you put down your brush?

Rafa de Corral: In my case, the process of creation is a continuous one. I can be anywhere and outline, refine, or initiate an idea that will later materialize or not. But I always try to be true to an idea that emerges strongly in my mind, as was the case with "INSIDE." Perhaps now, seeing the result, I realize that these pieces are very powerful and even intense; the execution and the process were slow but fluid, and at times, even obsessive... I couldn't stop working.

X.R.: On the opening day, we had the pleasure of enjoying the success of the exhibition with you. We could see the artworks and talk to many artists and critics. All of them agreed that your work has taken a significant leap by removing color and working with graphite, achieving a wide range of nuances. However, we have a somewhat mischievous question: Have you set the bar too high for your next step? Do you feel any fear?

Rafa de Corral: In reality, this exhibition is a parenthesis in my work. It's certainly a step towards an even greater synthesis, as we discussed earlier. The next step could be geometric abstraction, but it's too strict and rigorous to be taken lightly. It's an important step, and I prefer to follow where my inner self guides me. Setting the bar high? That's a mental question and should be treated as such. No, I don't have any fear.

 

Rafa de Corral.
Fotografía de Asun Bonilla.2018.

 

X.R.: In issue 8 of Canibaal magazine, dedicated to Architecture and Terror, we featured several of your works: "Persistence of Emptiness" (2015), "Landscape with Figure" (2017), and "The Real Live" (2014), where color and skies played a significant role. In this recent exhibition, it seems like you've definitively let go of the superfluous and have been able to deduce a "vital objective," the kind that artists perceive when they've somehow approached death. In your case, this proximity to death, through the loss of your brother, abruptly led you to new forms. Was the process as difficult as it appears in your works?

 

Paisaje y Figura.
Paisaje y figura.Mixta sobre tabla montada.50 x 100 cm. 2017.

 

Rafa de Corral: Yes, it was indeed a tough process but also necessary. My emotional state is reflected in my daily life and in my work, which is a fundamental part of my life. I believe that dedicating oneself to this is a choice of a way of life that involves many sacrifices and joys, but above all, you have to be honest and reflect what you naturally feel in your work to make it authentic. Seeing death so closely makes you reflect on many values that lack meaning and realize what truly matters. That's where the focus should be.

X.R.: Rafa, to conclude, do you, as an artist with over twenty years of experience in the art world, feel that you've seen it all, or does the flame of creativity continue to burn with the same intensity? Our perception is that this is precisely when the best of Rafa de Corral is beginning.

Rafa de Corral: It's clear that the trade and experience give you a broader perspective on your surroundings. Perhaps all these years have allowed me to take things more calmly. This calmness has allowed me to be more reflective when it comes to new challenges and artistic projects. I'm closer to my inner self, which provides me with a broader perspective on my ideas. I love creating forms that stimulate thoughts, emotions, sensations in the viewer, awakening parts of the mind that are dormant, and in that regard, I assure you that there is still much to be done.