Rafael Pérez Evans (b. 1983) is a Spanish-Welsh artist, living and working in London. He holds an MFA and BFA from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford, supported by an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Doctoral Training Partnership.

Pérez Evans’s installations, sculptures, and paintings are characterized by gravity and bluntness, often grafting together tactics of queer and agricultural dissent. His work repurposes tired readymades from agricultural and industrial origins, alongside foodstuffs and untamed gestures drawn from protests, to unite these material and political histories. By drawing attention to the relationship between queer and agricultural surplus, Pérez Evans creates works that are simultaneously vengeful and fragile, complicating our understanding of a collapsing material and social world. The materials he works with are often unstable, mirroring the degraded lands, voices and bodies that have been rendered surplus.

His work has been exhibited internationally in solo exhibitions, including Dust Bathers at Queer Circle, UK (2023); Insulin at No Show Space, UK (2022); Handful at The Henry Moore Institute, UK (2021); Pavo Realengo at Nogueras Blanchard Gallery, Barcelona (2017); and Pararrayo at Abierto Theredoom Gallery, Madrid (2017). Two-person and group exhibitions include Lull at Workplace, London; Unpacking, Wheels at The Royal Academy, South London Gallery, and Leeds Art Gallery, UK (2019-2022); Pica at TEA Museum, Spain (2022); Thief, Invigilate at C3A Museum, Spain (2020); Salvation at Saatchi Gallery (2020); The Devil’s Bird – Ornithomancy at Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (2019); L’Dounne – Divination at Matadero, Madrid (2018); and Queima at Despina, Rio de Janeiro (2015).

Recent artist talks include The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; Goldsmiths MFA, London; the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London; the University of Virginia, USA and Leeds University. He has also held recent visiting lecturer appointments at Goldsmiths MFA, London; the Royal Academy Schools, London; the Royal College of Art, Sculpture MA, London; Central Saint Martins, London; and Leeds Beckett University.

 

 

 

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© Rafael Pérez Evans