Rafael Parra-Toro (Caracas, 1977) is a Venezuelan artist and engineer whose production is characterized by the contemporary development of kinetic-optical art in both: physical and digital versions. He is one of the world's pioneers on creating art with the augmented reality technique. His work deals with and explores the experiences of international optic kinetism and combines them with the analysis of the viewer’s movement and color vibration through the use of moiré, and mathematical and IT tools that are usually applied to digital art, in order to create a geometrical universe that is full of shapes and colors.

Unlike the traditional use of the moiré effect in international optical kinetism, Parra-Toro is the first artist who uses moiré to create shapes and volumes in his geometric universe. The artist draws using moiré, and thus poses a radical change in the used his predecessors made of it.

“I do a lot of research, and then I just let it all go through my pieces... that’s how I make sure they keep surprising the public and myself. I just let them live by themselves, they develop their own perpetual energy and I surrender them to eternity.
My art is dynamic, it is movement, it is illusion and interaction, it wouldn’t exist without the presence of the observer. It is organic only when someone is looking at it, by itself it is cold and geometrical, because it is honest to its digital origin, but it becomes alive and vibratory only at the presence of human eyes and light, they are the true creators of my pieces. My work is based on moiré and chromatic induction.

Statement

Moiré has been developed and used by the greatest masters of kinetic and optical art, my starting point were those studies and I continued my research until I managed to control those vibrations with help from calculus and programing. That is how I produce shapes that aren’t really there, they appear to be there only because of the superposition of real vertical lines, and multiple inexistent elements are created from there, exploring without boundaries the creation of illusions with shapes and colors, that is what makes my pieces unique and interactive.

I began creating neo-kinetic art when my father passed away. I just wanted to know, where had he gone? My art is the answer to that question, they are creatures that only live inside other people, they have everlasting energy and they don’t need batteries or electricity to vibrate, you only need to walk in front and around these pieces made of plexiglass, vinyl and digital printing to realize that they are there, eternally alive.”

Some videos: https://www.parratoro.com/portfolio

SOLO SHOWS

• ARTE EN MOVIMIENTO. Galería Adriana Budich, Buenos Aires, 2018

• 1ESA1 Biblioteca VIVA. Santiago de Chile. Curaduría Macarena Cacciuttolo

• Mapping del Obelisco, Ciudad de Buenos Aires (30 Años del Hospital Garrahan)

• 1ESA1 (Solo Exhibition) Espacio O. Santiago de Chile. Curaduría

Macarena

Cacciuttolo 2017.

• ARCOBALENO (Apertura Atelier) Atelier ParraToro. Curaduría (Tiburón Negro) 2016.

• LA EVOLUCIÓN DE LA FORMA (Solo Exhibition). Centro Cultural Borges - Fundación Tres

  Pinos. Curaduría: Massimo Scaringella. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2016.

• MOIRÉPH (Solo Exhibition). Centro Cultural Borges - Fundación Tres Pinos. Curaduría

  Massimo Scaringella. Buenos Aires, Argentina. 2015

GROUP SHOWS

• LA RUTA DEL COLOR Aura Galerías, Ciudad de México 2018

• PLANCK FESTIVAL. Digital Art Festival. Buenos Aires, Argentina 2016

• NEI LUOGHI DELLA BELLEZZA, Cittá di Noto, Santa Caterina. Italy, 2016

• NI UNA MENOS. Articiclo. Buenos Aires, Argentina 2016

• IL PRIMATO DELLO SGUARDO, Comune di Messina. Italy, 2016

• UPFRONT, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2016

• PREMIUM (Art Basel Miami Season 2015), Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2015-2016

• MEMORY, Schwerdter Strasse, Berlín, Germany. 2015

• THE SOFTLINE, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2015

• (RE)VISION, 1199 First Avenue, New York, USA. 2014

• THINGS OF BEAUTY, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2014

• MIAMI-MIAMI, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2014

• BEAUTIFIED OBJECTS, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2014

• CONCEPTS (Art Basel Season 2014), Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2014

• FONZO, Curator’s Voice Art Projects. Miami, FL. 2014

• PICTOPLASMA (PORTRAITS & SELFIES), Museo MARCO de Monterrey, Mexico. 2014

• PICTOPLASMA ACADEMY GROUP SHOW, Urban Spree, Berlín, Germany. 2014