Bio

Esaí Alfredo Figueroa Ruiz, is a painter, printmaker  and illustrator born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. He recently received his bachelor's degree in illustration and painting from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). His preferred media are painting, printmaking and digital art. Currently he Esaí resides in Philadelphia, working as a full time fine artist and illustrator.  

My images allow me to explore my thoughts about a specific subject, visualize my dreams, or revive memories. I present all of these using landscape and figurative elements to contrast how small we are compared to the cosmos, at the same time conveying how we are part of the natural world that surrounds us and how important it is to us humans. 

Oil painting and printmaking, specifically monotype, are the current mediums I have been exploring and combing to generate the imagery in my work. I achieve this in my oil paintings by removing paint to reveal middle values; a technique that is also employed in monotype generated images. The surface is the source of light and additional layers of opaque painting create the brightest lights and the darkest darks. 

I am very influenced by the literary and artistic genre, magical realism, and in creating narratives  which represent the natural world, but have elements that make them look dreamlike or surreal. All I want is to continue exploring with more detail what I am doing, it’s meaning and reason, and why I do it.