"RF Alvarez's richly cinematic paintings weave together scenes of domestic interiors, back porches at night, quiet tableaus of lovers in conversation, and the dust-charged arena of the rodeo. Queer men appear in kitchens, under porch lights, or mid-dance in jeans and white T-shirts, their movements and gestures carrying the charge of closeness, hesitation, and private ritual - moments that feel at once intimate and defiant."
"Alvarez's compositions are anchored in specific, tactile moments: a man striking a match in the dark, another leaning in a doorway; the taut, twisting force of a bull mid-buck; an embrace that folds two bodies into one compressed frame. These fragments of everyday life are heightened by his mastery of light: amber windows cutting through the blue of night, candle glow gathering around wine glasses, shadows pressed into the folds of denim."
"In a moment when sexuality and national identity are increasingly politicized, Alvarez's work asks what it means to belong - to oneself, to another person, to a community - when those bonds are under scrutiny. The works in I Remember Everything capture connection not as a fixed state but as something continually negotiated, charged with both tenderness and strength."
Cinematic paintings weave domestic interiors, back porches at night, quiet tableaus of lovers in conversation, and the dust-charged arena of the rodeo. Queer men appear in kitchens, under porch lights, or mid-dance in jeans and white T-shirts, their gestures conveying closeness, hesitation, and private ritual. Compositions are anchored in tactile moments—a match struck in the dark, a doorway lean, a bull mid-buck, an embrace compressing two bodies—heightened through mastery of light: amber windows, candle glow, and denim-shadowed folds. Staging draws on baroque drama and film pacing to reclaim and complicate the cowboy archetype. Connection appears as continually negotiated belonging, tender and hard-won.
Read at Juxtapoz
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]