Rafael Fuentes

“Nothing escapes gravity. Not even light...”

Rafael Fuentes.

Venezuelan sculptor Rafael Fuentes was born in Valencia, Venezuela, in 1979, and graduated from UJAP in Valencia, Venezuela, with a Bachelor's degree in Business. He grew up surrounded by art, as his father and his late grandmother were painters, and from a very early age he was drawn to color, to geometry and to the way geometric shapes give way to figures that resemble nature and everyday objects.

At the age of 11 he started making pieces with paper and cardstock, and he has never stopped since. In 2004 he began working with sculptural techniques for creating three-dimensional forms from two-dimensional patterns; his current research is based on these techniques. He lives and works in Miami, Florida.

Through various branches of physics, calculus and geometry I capture the gravitational phenomena in a practical and visual way. Applying formulas from physics I extract the data needed to manipulate the space, as if some external force were attracting or repelling it. Gravitational waves, as oscillations in the plane, affect different parts of the works.

To carry out my study I rely primarily on physics and mathematics, and I use technology to configure the space, as my works are created in two phases, one digital and one analog. The work is built with different software; using derivative functions I draw the curves that define the geometric objects, their position and shapes. I use descriptive geometry to convert these three-dimensional fields into two-dimensional shapes, and from them I physically recreate what was built digitally.

Emulating this force that dominates the universe, which gives volume to and defines all that is real, is what drives me to pursue this process of spatial research.