OMG, Art: the paintings of RF. Alvarez

We recently came across the paintings of Texas-based artist RF. Alvarez, including Honky Tonk, above, and are swooning over their soft, queer subtleties.

In his own words in New American Painting:

My work deals with impermanence, indulgence, and belonging: three interconnected pillars of the queer experience. I am a gay man whose father immigrated from Mexico and whose mother comes from a family of cowboys. My work responds to the fallacy of masculinity central to both. I center images of a world where things are beautiful, temporary, unfurled and tender. I show men in love. I show groups of queer friends drinking and talking. I show flowers in full bloom, at the edge of wilting, fighting for their own beauty. And I show windswept landscapes of the place I am from: a place of deep thunderstorms and dried grass and conflict. I hope, by presenting these images in often monotone, shadowy composition, to present a vision of queer resilience.

See more images of his work after the jump!

The Kiss, 2023