Rafael Vargas-Suarez
Rafael Vargas-Suarez (a.k.a. Vargas-Suarez Universal) is a contemporary American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Born in Mexico City in 1972, Vargas-Suarez was raised in the Houston suburb of Clear Lake City, amongst the NASA community. He studied astronomy and art history at the University of Texas at Austin and moved to New York in Sept. 1997.
He is primarily known for large-scale wall drawing installations, paintings, drawings, and sound works incorporating scientific and architectural references. The role of technology, and in particular scientific imaging, are principal conceptual and aesthetic concerns in his works. Other subjects include the aesthetics of mathematical logic, aerospace design issues, the exploration of Mars, the development of scientific visualization, cartography techniques, the relationships between visual displays of quantified information and the abstract representations of science.
His work is included in various public collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland; Brooklyn Museum of Art Library, New York; DA2 (Domus Artium 2002), Fundacion Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura, Salamanca, Spain; El Museo del Barrio, New York (commission); LibertyHealth Foundation, Jersey City, NJ (commission); Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ; Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, TX; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy; Queens Museum of Art, New York; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York