Meet Rubinimichi: the collaborative effort of Ruben, Michi and Luisjo. They fondly refer to themselves as “the 3 headed monster”.
Ruben, Michi and Luisjo in their home studio in Madrid, Spain.
Rubenimichi’s work is dominated by the hidden, the secret, the dark, the magical, and the rituals that apply to their own creative process.
Their work is carried away by the amazement of certain everyday realities and their investigations of phenomenons of power, energy and magic. That is where they find their space, one in which to speculate through painting while looking for answers, offering an exhaustive documentation of their fascination.
Rubenimichi’s work is delicate and curious, with a persuasive pleasure. It has a dark result close to frivolity and sadism, but it is also poetic, luminous and inspiring; a contradictory mixture reflected in the chiaroscuro of their paintings vs their fairy tale point of view which is told through the meticulous gaze of their natural encyclopedia recreated through 3 heads, 6 eyes and 6 hands. There is a dark aura around their work which is slightly disturbing. Each has a hidden gloomy background that is reflected in the seriousness of their portraits but in the end, whimsy and their fascination in the magic of nature bursts forth to balance light and dark. Their work is a cosmic language full of symbols that they assume as their own, in a context of confusion between the impossible and the simple, between what is and what seems.
Azar, acrylic on canvas
Arbol de la Ciencia, acrylic on canvas
-How has your work changed over time? Has your skill or ideology changed?
We have been painting together for 20 years; it is inevitable that our work has evolved and changed.
When we started we liked pop art much more than we do now. Our paintings were full of light and color, our references and aesthetics were different and in our paintings there were hardly any stories. Over time our work has darkened and now is full of magic, symbols and mystery.
Technically we have learned a lot in terms of volume, shadow, the use of “chiaroscuro” ... all this has to do with the maturity that the years give you, past learning and curiosity to progress and not stop discovering new things.
Mimas, acrylic on canvas
-What themes do you find most interesting?
We really like everything related to nature and we try to turn the human being into the animal that one day humans were. Nature is so present in our work because it is something fundamental in our lives.
We have a house in the countryside surrounded by trees and plants. There we try to spend as much time as possible painting. It is there where many of the ideas of our paintings have emerged.
There we go wild, we take care of the trees, we feed the birds, the cats ...
We have a pantheistic view of the world. Nature is our God, that's why our relationship with it is magical, idealized and even supernatural.
In our work, the esthetic component has always been very evident, but we have tried to remove that negative component by surrounding it all with a halo of special beauty because actually, our paintings are a search for beauty through the dark and disturbing.
We are also very interested in the evolution of species and how through chaos everything evolves into a kind of medieval bestiary.
New work in progress.
-Where do you find inspiration?
Maybe our greatest inspiration in the art world will be Flemish painting from the 15th and 16th centuries. We are interested in compositions, perspectives, colors and the air of mystery and strange beauty that surrounds everything. Other sources of inspiration are the botanical drawings of the 17th and 18th centuries, the magical treatises of the 19th century and lately metaphysics.
Something I have wanted to ask you, specifically…how do the three of you work together? Do you all work on every piece? Do you each have a specialty such as: one of you paints the people, another the flora, another the wood grains, etc?…
That’s the million dollar question, hahaha!
Working together is the easiest way for us. We have been working in this way for 20 years and we think that we don’t know how to work individually. :) We work together in the whole process: one of us explains an idea and we start to develop and work on it. So our paintings are always a mix of Ruben, Michi and Luisjo. That’s why we always say that Rubenimichi is a monster with 3 heads and 6 arms. Over time each of us has specialized in something or likes to paint one thing more than another, but it’s not something very defined. We all do everything. It is perfect, because if you get tired of painting something you know that there is always someone who will finish it.
Rogier van der Weyden, The Descent from the Cross c. 1435. Oil on oak panel, 220cm × 262 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid Spain
-Name three artists you’d like to study with, from the past or present and why.
-Caravaggio. Because of the use of the “chiaroscuro” and because he was a radical character in his time. He was an art revolutionary.
- Van der Weyden. We would have liked to witness “The Descent” (which we consider an absolute master piece) being painted. It is one of our favorite paintings. We can spend hours and hours looking at it in the Prado Museum in Madrid.
-Brueghel the Elder. Another of our favorite artists. We would love to be students of his workshop. Learning everything about compositions, color, inspiration ...
-What’s your background? Do you have a formal art education or are you self taught?
We are self-taught persons, none of the 3 have studied Fine Arts formally.
We have learned painting together. We are restless and curious people and that is our school, when we want to do something, we study, we investigate, we try until we get it.
Materia Primera, acrylic on canvas
C.V. ABREVIATED
-SOLO SHOWS:
2018- “Rubenimichi” IKB 191. Madrid
2016- “Sol Negro” Plastic Murs. Valencia
2016- “De Natura” La Eriza. Madrid
2015- “Sol Negro” Fresh Gallery. Madrid
2015- “Sol Negro” Escalera de Incendios. Barcelona
2014- “Sobrenatural” Espai Tactel. Valencia
2013- “Anima Mundi” Solo Mutt Gallery. Milán (Italia)
2012- “Sobrenatural” Mutt Gallery. Barcelona.
2011- “Mágico” La Fresh Gallery. Madrid.
2011- “Humano-animal.” Mondo Bizzarro Gallery. Roma. Italia
2009- “A.N.I.M.A.L.” La Fresh Gallery. Madrid.
2008- “Revelación” FEM. Centro Cultural Casa de Vacas, Parque del Retiro. Madrid.
2006- Galeria “Mad is Mad”. Madrid.
2005- Galeria Art’s Factory. Paris.
2004- “Retrátame”. Ateneo Cultural El Albéitar. León.
-GROUP SHOWS:
2020- “Contemporary Narratives” Stone Sparrow NYC. Nueva York.
2019- “Birds of a feather” Stone Sparrow NYC. Nueva York.
2019- “False Face” Stone Sparrow NYC. Nueva York.
2017- Hybrid Fair. Madrid.
2016- “Animalista” La Casa Encendida. Madrid.
2016- “Lápiz, papel o tijera” Plastic Murs. Valencia.
2016- “Otra puta Feria mas” Galería 6+1. Madrid.
2016- “Poder Planetario” Watdafac Gallery. Madrid.
2015- Nuit Blanche Mayenne (Le Kiosque Mayenne) Mayenne, Pays De La Loire,
France
2014- "BIG" La Fresh Gallery. Madrid.
2013- Feria Casa//Arte. Madrid. Galería Espai Tactel.
2013- “Are you the fire or just another flame?” Solo Mutt Gallery. Milán (Italia).
2013- “Are you the fire or just another flame?” Mutt Gallery. Barcelona.
2013- “I Festival Cultura a Casa” Mallorca.
2013- “Still Life with” La Térmica. Málaga.
2013- “Vanitas 3” La Térmica. Málaga.
2013- “Somos Animales” Mutuo. Barcelona
2012- “Sexy Show” Mitte Barcelona.
2012- “Mondo Bizzarro International” Studio 21. Salerno (Italia)
2012- “El último verano antes del fin del mundo” Watdafac Gallery. Madrid
2012- Mutt Gallery. Feria SWAB. Barcelona
2011- “The New Lost Generation” Mondo Bizzarro Gallery. Roma. Italia
2011- “La música es la respuesta (a tus problemas)” JUGADA A 3 BANDAS. La Fresh
Gallery. Madrid.
2011- “Cadáveres exquisitos” Feria JUST MAD. Madrid.
2010- “Una Gran Familia” La Fresh Gallery. Madrid.
2010- “Away From Dios. Los 7+1 Pecados Capitales” Galería CMTV. Barcelona.
2009- XX Muestra de Artes Plásticas. Sala Borrón. Oviedo
2009- “Everything But the Kitschen Sync” La Luz de Jesus Gallery. Los Angeles.
California.
2009- “Los Niños Terribles”. Fast Gallery. Madrid
2008- Inauguración de La Fresh Gallery. Madrid.
2008- “Calaveras” Espacio Max Luz. Madrid.
2008- “Work in progress”Centro Cultural San Prudencio. Talavera de la Reina. Toledo
2007- “Las cosas del querer” Centro Cultural El Foro. Pozuelo de Alarcón. Madrid
2007- “Geyperman se va de casa” Galeria Mad is Mad. Madrid.
2007- “Souvenirs” Berkana. Madrid.
2006- “Fever Duck Show” Galeria Mercado del Borne. Barcelona.
2006- “La Naturaleza y la Noche” Galeria Espacio Valverde. Madrid.
2006- “Osos, gamos, poneis y otros animales” FESTIVAL VISIBLE. Galeria “Mad