Santiago Rubino: Light Out of Darkness

The delicate borders between the dream and the real, a deep fascination with the visual luxuries of ancient mythology, and a potent desire to explore the inherent beauty within the disciplines of the physical and metaphysical sciences are all at work for Miami-based artist Santiago Rubino. His painstaking draftsmanship and razor-edged precision in executing geometric perspective and line contribute to the timeless quality of his figurative portraits. Sometimes placed in lavish surroundings, sometimes floating in a quiet pool of negative space, his characters command a distinctive poise, evoking the regal air of a Victorian-era portrait sitter. Faithful to pure, creative intuition and injecting a dark, urban streak, Rubino’s work is rooted in a diverse range of principles from Renaissance cartooning, landscapes from classical antiquity, contemporary graffiti, and character animation.

Santiago Rubino was born in Buenos Aires in 1979, and is entirely self-taught. For the last seven years, Rubino’s work has been exhibited at commercial and art-fair venues in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Mexico City, Toronto and Miami. Between 2007 and 2008, solo presentations of Rubino’s work were held at Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea, Merry Karnowsky Gallery in Los Angeles, and Spinello Projects in Miami. Rubino has been featured in GQ Magazine, Ocean Drive Magazine,MIAMI Magazine, Art & Antiques, and Artnet.com. Rubino lives and works in Miami.