Paula Rubino is a painter making compelling contemporary imagery with classical techniques and materials. Spare compositions are arranged to evoke calm, color is placed to heighten mood, and multi-layered, broad brushwork builds a complex yet fresh surface. Slightly absurd compositions, elements of humor, beauty, and strangeness are sometimes employed to convey timeless, subtle social messages.
Rubino trained at the Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and furthered her studies with Richard Serrin in Florence and Odd Nerdrum in Norway.
Paula Rubino brings a broad range of stylistic influence and international experience to bear in her bold and colorful painting, the creation of which takes place primarily in her Florida and Finland studios. With education in architecture, drawing, painting, etching and print-making, this New Jersey native applies an unconventional approach to the figure while still incorporating several methods and materials from her traditional training. A strong interest in design and a modernist view of color are also apparent in her work, and as such her paintings often appear assemblage-like in their striking arrangement of prints and patterns and in the broken, textual brushwork that bring the fabrics to life. Here the artist talks about the evolution of her eclectic style, explains how she composes her ideas on canvas, and shares how her work with paint and color is an opportunity to convey social messages and reflections on the human condition. (from In the Studio: Paula Rubino by Allison Malafronte, February 2019)
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