Rafael Parra Toro

Rafael Parra Toro (Caracas, October 17, 1977), also known as Parratoro, is a visual artist born in Venezuela. Specializing in kinetic art and augmented reality using the artistic technique known as moiré, he has participated in group and solo exhibitions in Argentina, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Italy and the United States.[1]

Rafael Parra Toro
Born (1977-10-17) October 17, 1977
Caracas, Venezuela
NationalityVenezuelan
Argentine
Other names"Parratoro"
Alma materCentral University of Venezuela
OccupationVisual artist
Years active1999-present

Biography

Early years

Rafael Parra Toro was born on 1977 in Caracas, Venezuela. He studied engineering at the Central University of Venezuela, whose campus was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Open Air Museum.[1] There he became interested in the visual arts, inspired by the work of Venezuelan artists such as Jesús Rafael Soto, Gego, Víctor Valera, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Gerd Leufert and Carlos Raúl Villanueva; and international artists such as Alexander Calder, Víctor Vasarely, Jean Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Joan Miró.[2][3]

Career

Initially he worked as a 3D art developer for the video game industry with the company MP Game Studio, with which he made creations for companies such as Nickelodeon, DreamWorks and Cartoon Network. In 2013 he was part of the Pictoplasma Academy, a training program in visual arts and character creation developed by the German organization of the same name. He later co-founded a collective named The Eggplant, along with other visual artists.[2]

Based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, since 2008,[4] in the 2010s his work began to appear in several exhibitions around the world. In 2014 he was part of the group exhibition Pictoplasma at the Urban Spree gallery in Berlin, Germany and at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey, Mexico.[5] Between 2014 and 2016 he participated in several exhibitions of the Curator's Voice Project in Miami, Florida,[6] and in 2015 he presented a solo exhibition entitled "Moiréph" in Buenos Aires in honor of the writer Jorge Luis Borges.[3][7] A year later he presented "La Evolución de la Forma" at the Borges Cultural Center[8] and participated in the group exhibition "Ni una menos", both in Buenos Aires.[9]

After participating in the Planck Festival of Digital Art in Buenos Aires, in 2017 he presented the solo exhibition "1 es a 1" at the Espacio O Gallery and at the Biblioteca Viva in Santiago de Chile,[1] and made the mapping intervention of the Obelisk of Buenos Aires in commemoration of the thirty years of the Garrahan Hospital.[10][11] In 2018 he participated in the group exhibition "La Ruta del Color" at Aura Galerías in Mexico City[12] and presented a new solo show in Buenos Aires, entitled "Arte en Movimiento".[13] After participating in Miami with the group collection "Filled Parcels",[14] in 2020 he was part of the "Digital Diderot Exhibition", a virtual space of augmented reality simulation developed in the Argentine capital.[15][16]

Through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, Parratoro published the real-time animation book Pop on Pop, in which he presents 110 designs of his authorship. His work was included in Outside the Lines Too, a book published by Penguin Group in which artists such as Ryan Humphrey, Rainer Judd, Richard Colman and Jim Houser also participate. He also designed the game Frenetic Kinetic for the mobile platforms IOS and Android.[9]

Style

Rafael Parra Toro's work is characterized by the development of kinetic and optical art in both physical and digital versions.[17] He is a pioneer of artistic creation through the use of augmented reality and creates his works using the moiré technique, which is based on the superimposition of lines of division, in addition to relying on computer and mathematical tools applied to digital art. Parratoro is recognized as "one of the leading exponents of optical and kinetic art today".[1]

Exhibitions

Group
  • 2014 - "Pictoplasma", Urban Spree, Berlin, Germany
  • 2014 - "Pictoplasma", Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Mexico
  • 2014 - "Fonzo", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2014 - "Concepts", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2014 - "Beautified Objects", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2014 - "Miami-Miami", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2014 - "Things of Beauty", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2014 - "(Re) Vision", 1199 First Avenue, New York, United States
  • 2015 - "The Softline", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2015 - "Memory", Schwerdter Strasse, Berlin, Germany
  • 2015 - "Premium", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2016 - "Upfront", Curator's Voice Project, Miami, United States
  • 2016 - "Il Primato dello Sguardo", Messina, Italy
  • 2016 - "Ni una Menos", Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2016 - "Nei Luoghi Della Bellezza", Santa Caterina, Italy
  • 2016 - "Planck Festival of Digital Art", Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2018 - "La Ruta del Color", Aura Galerías, Mexico City
  • 2020 - "Diderot Digital Exhibition", Buenos Aires, Argentina

Source: [9]

Individual
  • 2015 - "Moiréph", Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2015 - "The Evolution of Form", Borges Cultural Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2016 - "Arcobaleno", Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • 2017 - "1 is to 1", Espacio O and Biblioteca Viva, Santiago de Chile
  • 2017 - "Mapping of the Obelisk of Buenos Aires", Argentina
  • 2018 - "Art in Motion", Adriana Budich Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Source: [9]

References
  1. "El arte cinético de Rafael Parra Toro llega a Biblioteca Viva". Biblioteca Viva (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  2. "Rafael Parra Toro". Balice Art Dealer. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  3. "La matemática como forma del arte". Ámbito (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  4. "Rafael Parra Toro: "Siempre soñé con ser artista"". Curadas (in Spanish). 2020-07-07. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  5. "Pictoplasma en Museo MARCO: el retrato contemporáneo de personajes". Disignaholic (in Spanish). 2015-01-15. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  6. "Mirar al Sur. Nace el museo Marco, en La Boca". La Nación (in Spanish). 2016-02-28. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  7. "El venezolano Rafael Parra Toro presenta su arte cinético en Buenos Aires". El Estímulo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  8. "Rafael Parra Toro – La Evolución de la Forma". Fundación Tres Pinos (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  9. "About". Rafael Parra Toro. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  10. "El Garrahan festejó sus 30 años con una feria saludable para chicos en el Obelisco". Gobierno de Argentina (in Spanish). 2017-08-24. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  11. "El Hospital Garrahan cumple 30 años". La Nación (in Spanish). 2017-08-25. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  12. "Rafael Parra Toro". Aura Galerías (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  13. "Obra de Rafael Parra Toro". Universidad Tecnológica de Temuco (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  14. "¿Qué hacer? Arte en Miami". El Nuevo Herald (in Spanish).
  15. "Una galería de arte en casa: lanzan el primer espacio virtual que simula la realidad aumentada". Infobae (in Spanish). Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  16. "Diderot.Art: Una muestra de arte digital para recorrer desde casa". Indie Hoy (in Spanish). 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
  17. "Diderot.art: una forma innovadora de exhibir". La Nación (in Spanish). 2020-11-14. Retrieved 2021-03-06.
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