RF. Alvarez

RF. Alvarez (b. 1988, San Antonio, TX) is a queer artist based in Austin, Texas. His figurative paintings are characterized by nocturnal color palettes and evocative scenes that blend personal memory with romantic allegory. Using a process of dry-brushing paint onto raw linen – and borrowing stylistic techniques from Old Masters – Alvarez creates luminous images of queer joy, revelry, and contemplation; countering a historical narrative of queer alienation and erasure in the American West. With deep family roots in both Texas and Mexico, Alvarez uses visions of friendship, indulgence, and tenderness to juxtapose with Southern machismo – illuminating the vulnerability that can hide beneath the steely façade of masculinity and the societies it

creates.

Alvarez has shown with Almine Rech in Paris, Taymour Grahne Projects in London, Alanna Miller Gallery in New York City, and Ruiz-Healy Gallery in San Antonio. His work has been featured in The New York Times, T Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, and Cultured Magazine. He received a BA from Wesleyan University.

Conner O’Leary

Conner O’Leary’s paintings can best be described as uneasy still lifes or quiet chaos. The works typically take place in spaces flooded by light and shadows. The spaces feel familiar, like the interior of a home, but the perspective and orientation of the composition causes confusion. Objects float, paintings hang inside paintings, and shadows are long and ominous. Another dimension is created altogether. O'Leary's paintings take stock of the melancholic mundanity and quiet tension that colors our moments (or months) of seclusion and bring these into focus with photo-realism that hearkens back to the Dutch and Flemish masters.

Conner Michael O'Leary (b. 1990, Dallas) was born and raised in Texas. Moving to Austin in 2010, O'Leary has long favored painting still lives and figurations which meditate on “quiet chaos” and combine observational traditions with Flemish naturalism and symbolism, as well as surrealism, abstraction, and a variety of others. O'Leary lives and works in Austin and has shown with Martha’s in Austin, Half Gallery in New York, and Rusha & Co in Los Angeles. In the fall of 2024, he will be featured in Surrealism Now! at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin and a solo show with 12.26 in Los Angeles. Martha’s Gallery in Austin represents him.