RF. Alvarez

born 1988 in San Antonio, TeXas
Lives and works in Austin, Texas

RF. Alvarez is an artist based in Austin, Texas. His figurative paintings are characterized by nocturnal color pallets and evocative scenes that blend personal memory with romantic allegory. Using a process of dry-brushing paint onto raw linen – and borrowing stylistic techniques from Old Masters – Alvarez creates luminous images of queer joy, revelry and contemplation; countering a historical narrative of queer alienation and erasure in the American West. With family roots in both Texas and Mexico, Alvarez uses visions of friendship, indulgence and tenderness to juxtapose with Southern machismo – illuminating the vulnerability that can hide beneath the steely façade of masculinity and the societies it creates.

UPCOMING Exhibitions

January 2025 The Minotaur Bar – Austin

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024 The Look Back – Taymour Grahne Projects, London

2023 Eros – Alanna Miller, New York City

2022 The Invitation – Taymour Grahne Projects, London

Zephyros – Preacher Gallery, Austin

2021 Tender Is the Heart – Self-produced, Austin

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024 Contemporary Domesticity II – Taymour Grahne Projects, London

2023 Wish – Almine Rech, Paris

Queer Intimacy – Taymour Grahne Projects, London

Art in Embassies – U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden

2021 Plurality of Isolations – Ruiz-Healy Gallery, San Antonio

Press & Publications

Texas Monthly
"RF Alvarez Paints Texas in A New Light” by Paul L. Underwood

T Magazine, The New York Times
“Out West, The Gay Cowboy Roams Free” by Evan Moffitt

The T List, The New York Times
“RF. Alvarez’s Paintings of Queer Intimacy in The American West” by Juan A. Ramirez

The Brooklyn Rail
"RF. Alvarez: Eros” by Annabel Keenan

Cultured Magazine
“RF. Alvarez Paints Queer Domesticity With a Cowboy Twist” by Osman Can Yerebakan

New American Painting Issue 162, November 2022
Curated by Tyler Blackwell