RF. Alvarez
born 1988 in San Antonio, TeXas
Lives and works in Austin, Texas
RF. Alvarez creates figurative paintings that conjure a Baroque sensibility within a distinctly Americana vernacular. Working in dry-brushed acrylic on raw linen, his chiaroscuro works recontextualize personal memory and heritage into something akin to allegory. With a visual language shaped as much by art historical precedents as by his Texan upbringing, queerness, and fascination with mythology, Alvarez’s work challenges the mythos of American Western identity through intimate scenes of gathering, domesticity, comfortable queerness and romance.
By reconciling with heritage and applying an innately queer lens, Alvarez asks us to consider the fragility of the solitary cowboy as an embodiment of American masculinity, the capricious yet wonderful nature of belonging, and the beauty and sorrow inherent in impermanence.
SELECTED INSTITUTIONAL COLLECTIONS
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA, US
Sammlung Sander, Darmstadt, Germany
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 I Remember Everything – Megan Mulrooney Gallery, LA
The Minotaur Bar – Martha’s Contemporary, Austin
2024 The Look Back – Taymour Grahne Projects, London
2023 Eros – Alanna Miller, New York City
2022 The Invitation – Taymour Grahne Projects, London
Zephyros – Preacher Gallery, Austin
2021 Tender Is the Heart – Self-produced, Austin
Selected Group & FAIR Exhibitions
2026 I <3 LA – albertz benda, Los Angeles
Felix Art Fair – Megan Mulrooney Gallery
NADA New York – Megan Mulrooney Gallery
2025 NADA Miami – Megan Mulrooney Gallery
Armory Art Fair New York – Solo booth, Martha’s Gallery
Felix Art Fair – Megan Mulrooney Gallery
NADA New York – Megan Mulrooney Gallery
2024 Contemporary Domesticity II – Taymour Grahne Projects
NADA Art Fair Miami – Martha’s Contemporary
2023 Wish – Almine Rech, Paris
Queer Intimacy – Taymour Grahne Projects, London
Art in Embassies – U.S. Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden
2021 Plurality of Isolations – Ruiz-Healy Gallery, San Antonio
SELECTED AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2025 Delfina Foundation Artist Residency Prize
Press & Publications
Texas Monthly
"RF Alvarez Paints Texas in A New Light” by Paul L. Underwood
SSENCE Magazine
”A Cowboy Rides into The Dark”
Office Magazine
“RF Alvarez and Caleb Hahne Quintana in Conversation”
T Magazine, The New York Times
“Out West, The Gay Cowboy Roams Free” by Evan Moffitt
The T List, The New York Times
“RF. Alvarez’s Paintings of Queer Intimacy in The American West” by Juan A. Ramirez
The Brooklyn Rail
"RF. Alvarez: Eros” by Annabel Keenan
Cultured Magazine
“RF. Alvarez Paints Queer Domesticity With a Cowboy Twist” by Osman Can Yerebakan
New American Painting Issue 162, November 2022
Curated by Tyler Blackwell