My paintings are full of a surrealist queerness and a sense of existentialism that transcend our customary ways of seeing reality. Gender issues and human sexuality have intrigued me from an early age. My artwork has been affected by my Catholic upbringing in contrast to my experiences as a gay man. The dichotomy created by the presence of sex and spirituality combined with a constant drift between abstraction and figuration are fundamental elements of my body of work. 

Throughout the years I have created paintings that play with perception and preconceived ideas of the male and female form. I deconstruct and reconstruct the human body as a way of redefining masculinity and femininity.  My paintings depict beings that overcome their fragmentation through their transfiguration; bodies that transcend time and space creating a link between the internal and external universe. The representation of sectioned and reconstructed nudes suggests sexualities that have been interrupted, manipulated, and magnified for public contemplation. The anatomical references merge into each other creating ambiguous sexual forms where male and female become one. The traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity are erased and the eyes of the spectator are opened to a new realm of possibilities.

The co-existence between fauna, botanical and human anatomical references is noticeable in some of my paintings. They celebrate the symbiotic relationship between us and our habitat. My work of art has always promoted equity and functions as a hopeful invitation to inclusive and harmonious coexistence. They are surreal images of luminous forms that emerge to delight us and suggest introspection; paintings that echo the uncontainable energy that revives, unifies, and transforms the universe.

Héctor Rafael