Rafael Landea

Deus ex Machina

In Greek and Roman drama, a god lowered by stage machinery to resolve a plot or extricates the protagonist from a difficult situation.  An unexpected, artificial, or improbable character, device, or event introduced suddenly in a work of fiction or drama to resolve a situation or untangle a plot.

This series of paintings is a reflection or variations of this concept. A ceremony carried out without supreme or heavenly powers, a pagan experience where God is an invented machine, constructed and guided by humans as they desire, to save or annihilate themselves, or simply to play. Placing the scenes together like a game, with little pieces of plays. Some donít exist, while others are tributes to real productions like “E la Nave Va” (And the Ship Sails On) by Federico Fellini, and to Barbara Jefford interpreting the role of Ildebranda Cuffari in the same film.

e la nave va
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Maps of Silence – Swimmer

twin theaters
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Maps of Silence – Twin Theaters

e la nave va
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Maps of Silence – E la nave va

Rafael Landea

Rafael Landea Artista VisualRafael Landea received his MFA from La Plata University, Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a 2011 recipient of a San Francisco Arts Commission Grant for Individual Artists and he was featured in the 2012 “Our Radar”, Creative Capital database of art projects. His works are included in the public collections at MaM (Museum of Art and Memory), and MPB (Fine Arts Museum Buenos Aires) Argentina. His most recent solo exhibitions were “1930” Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum, “Maps of Silence”, a multimedia installation at the Exploratorium Museum of Art Science and Human Perception in San Francisco, and “Malvinas” Museum Malvinas (ESMA) Buenos Aires. Other solo exhibition venues include Grace Cathedral 1055 Gallery, San Francisco, CA, and, Archimboldo Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Group exhibition highlights include “Performance” at Gensler San Francisco, “Madres de Plaza de Mayo” CC Haroldo Conti, Buenos Aires. Landea has worked as a set designer and painter for theater in Argentina for more than 15 years. He has also been actively involved in designing and producing murals nationally and internationally; the latest in San Francisco, funded by Artery Project, and collaborations in Turin and Genoa, Italy. In 2019 created two large murals, Architecture University and the Law Library both in La Plata, Argentina. He has created illustrations for magazines and books for important Argentinean publishers as Anfibia, Malisia, EME, Ediciones B, and Universities, the latest in 2021: “Malvinas mi Casa” a book based on a diary written in 1829 in Malvinas/Falklands. Landea was selected for the 2020 Prequalified Artist Pool by San Francisco Arts Commission.