Rolankay

Rolankay (b. 1989) 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 decided to move to Santiago to study art.

Through figuration and the use of solid colours, which refer to the work of Matisse and the Japanese painting of the Edo period, Rolankay develops 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, both in exotic locations and in 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 to 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, being highly acclaimed by his unique aesthetic while his large-size paintings were acquired by collectors from all around the world.

Rolankay lives and works in Santiago, Chile.