rg.en

Rafael Grassi
Switzerland, 1969

In his works, Rafael Grassi reconciles a deep attachment to pictorial material with a taste for creating an illusion of perspective and deceptive figuration. Figures serve as a starting point that gradually decomposes, freeing itself from preconceived meanings and generating a pictorial surface full of paradoxes and chromatic diversity.

Formal analogies, paradoxes, and linguistic contaminations are some of the notions evoked in his painting. Photographic images act as an initial reference, triggering a process of successive manipulation and metamorphosis that preserves the trace of a decaying image. In this transformation, formerly narrative elements emancipate themselves on the canvas, reclaiming an autonomy freed from meaning.

Grassi holds a degree in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. Since the 1990s, he has exhibited in galleries and art centers across France, Switzerland, Spain, and Italy. His solo exhibitions have taken place in institutions such as the Centre d’Art de Dompierre, the Fond d’Art Contemporain de Montluçon, the Colegio de España in Paris, Palazzo Mezzabarba in Pavia, and the Valérie Larbaud Cultural Center in Vichy.

His works are part of collections such as Fundació Banc Sabadell, Fundació La Caixa, Olor Visual, the Italian Ministry of Culture, FRAC Auvergne, Collection Passimessa Clermont-Ferrand, the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Collection Municipale d’Art Contemporain de Vitry-sur-Seine, the Contemporary Art Collection of the Canton of Zurich, the Peter Nobel Collection, the PRISA Collection, and the Helga de Alvear Collection.

Rafael Grassi
Ikebana
2024
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Inventario [Inventory]. 2024

Inventory presents a selection of paintings produced by Rafael Grassi (Switzerland, 1969) over the past three years. All of them belong to thematic cycles that, with irony and a delicate sense of play, revisit certain traditional painting genres.

From still life to landscape, passing through Memento Mori, the artist reconciles a deep attachment to pictorial material with a taste for creating an illusion of perspective and a deceptive figuration. His approach to painting is uninhibited and direct, embodying—both precisely and effortlessly—the possibility of continuing to invent images through the sheer enjoyment of the pictorial exercise.

A utopian impulse, a tribute to the fragile and fleeting beauty of the flower, and an acceptance of life’s finitude are some of the themes that run through these works. Yet, beyond their anecdotal aspects, the images emancipate themselves on the canvas, reclaiming an autonomy freed from meaning and forming, each in its own way, a vibrant and powerful celebration of painting.

Rafael Grassi

2024
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi. Inventario. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2024

Rafael Grassi
Memento
2024
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Flamme
2024
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi. Inventario. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2024

Rafael Grassi
Juegos florales
2021
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Juegos florales
2022
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Forms of Life
2022
Oil on canvas
230 x 180 x 5 cm

Rafael Grassi
Inseln #5 / Barataria
2022
Oil on canvas
180 x 140 cm

Rafael Grassi
Inseln #3 / Utopía
2022
Oil on canvas
180 x 140 cm

Rafael Grassi. Inventario. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2024

Rafael Grassi
Insel #1 Utopía
2022
Oil on canvas
180 x 140 cm

Rafael Grassi
Flirt
2021
Oil on canvas
100 x 80 x 4 cm

Rafael Grassi
2022
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi. Presencias. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2021

Rafael Grassi
Ikebana 3
2022
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Ikebana 1
2022
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi. Presencias. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2021

Rafael Grassi
Ikebana 4
2022
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
2022
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Eppur
2021
Oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm

Rafael Grassi
Dancers
2021
Oil on canvas
100 x 80 cm

Rafael Grassi
Spring Dream
2020
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Under construction II
2020
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Under construction I
2020
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Patient candle
2020
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Skinny Bird
2020
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Ornamental Temptation
2020
Oil on canvas
160 x 130 cm

Rafael Grassi
Voglia di Vento
2020
Oil on canvas
30 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Easy Life
2020
Oil on canvas
40 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Erased Word
2019
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Dark Days
2019
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Today Was Yesterday
2019
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Yesterday is Today
2019
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi
Untitled
2019
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Idole I
2018
Oil on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Idole II
2018
Oil on canvas
40 x 30 cm

Rafael Grassi. Presencias. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2021

Rafael Grassi
Waiting for holidays
2018
Oil on canvas
50 x 40 cm

Rafael Grassi
Untitled
2017
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 cm

Rafael Grassi
Four Reasons to Be Optimistic IV
2017
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 cm

Rafael Grassi
Adán
2017
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 cm

Rafael Grassi
Walterego
2016
Acrylic on canvas
30 x 24 cm

Rafael Grassi. El huracán del ojo. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2016

Rafael Grassi
Floration IV
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Floration VIII
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Floration V
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Printemps Suisse
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Blume
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi. El huracán del ojo. NF/NIEVES FERNANDEZ, Madrid. 2016

Rafael Grassi
Personne
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Espoir
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Father
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Mother
2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 50 cm

Rafael Grassi
Chomeur
2016
Acrylic on canvas
200 x 150 cm