Fabián Barraza (Rolan Kay)
Fabián Barraza (Rolan Kay)

Rolankay is a visual artist and illustrator with a degree in Illustration from the Instituto Profesional de Arte y Comunicación Arcos in Santiago and self-taught studies in painting.

Hailing from the Atacama Region of northern Chile, he was born and lived his youth surrounded by the desert landscape. After studying Psychology, the artist moved to Santiago to study art.

Through figuration and solid colors, which refer to Matisse's work and the Edo period's Japanese painting, Rolankay developed his creation mainly through painting and drawing. In these media, the artist presents analogies of psychological tensions and impressions in which symbolic features evoke a sense of meaning that is always open to completion. Thus, in his work, human beings relate to their surroundings, objects, and animals, the latter being divine representations in exotic locations and landscapes reminiscent of his childhood in the desert.

In parallel to his work as a visual artist, he is a professor of Illustration at the Instituto Arcos and an art director and editorial designer at independent publishing houses in Santiago.

He has exhibited individually and collectively since 2015 in independent spaces and galleries such as Isabel Croxatto Galería and Espacio Andrea Brunson in Santiago, OMNI Gallery in London, and Sobering Galerie in Paris, in addition to the publication of the artist books Apariciones (2021, Libros Tadeys) and Zanshin (2017, Editorial DAMN). Rolankay was selected among the finalists for the XV MAVI UC Young Artists Award by the Museum of Visual Arts in Santiago.

His breakthrough solo show, Supersticiones, presented by Isabel Croxatto Galería in Santiago in 2022, led Rolankay to be featured in five Artsy editorials. He was highly acclaimed for his unique aesthetic, and his large-size paintings were acquired by collectors from all over the world.

Rolankay lives and works in Madrid, Spain.