Raphaël Del Rosario grew up in the Savoie region in South-eastern France and has been drawing ever since childhood. He studied at the ENAAI Art School in his native region where he acquired both traditional and modern techniques and graduated in illustration in 2006.
After having worked in the fields of graphic design, architectural renderings and art teaching for a few years, he decided to focus on a personal projects using traditional techniques such as gouache and oil painting. He discovered printmaking in 2014 with drypoint, etching. and more recently with mezzotint, intaglio became his main artistic medium, a natural evolution after many years of pen and ink drawing.
He explores his own universe to find inspiration and has always associated traditional figuration with the idea of complementarity of words and pictures.
“My influences are a mix of both classical art and pulps’ illustrations. The ability of a picture to suggest new stories in the viewer’s mind is very important to me.”
Raphaël Del Rosario’s work is mostly figurative and imaginary, inspired by tales, legends and myths that are part of our memories and popular stories. By representing his own myths, he attempts to communicate with these symbolic figures that live in our minds to create an evocation, a link between what we see and our memory.
As part of the narrative figuration movement, made of symbolism and oneirism, the picture is an invitation to meditate and invent stories. It strives to instigate active viewing by using symbolic elements to stimulate imagination.
He took part in several collective or personal exhibitions in France, mostly around Lyon.
Main exhibitions :
2024: Group : “Animalux“, gallery Autour de l’image (Lyon),“Myths and Legends of the World“ (Miami, USA), Art Singulier (Meysse).
Personnal : Galerie 41 (Lyon)
2023: Group : Art Singulier (Meysse), “Miniprint” 17th biennal international Miniature print competition (Norwalk, USA) : honorable mention.
Personnal : gallery Corpus (Villerest), gallery Léty (Vienne), Teste du Baillier (Vienne), gallery Antilope (Lyon), Maison Ume (St Just la Pendue).
2022: Vienn’Art printmaking : First price of the gallery Léty (Vienne).
Biennal “Notre mer” (Saint Laurent d’Agny) : prints and paintings.
2021: Salon Tony Tollet (Lyon), René Carcan (Paris).
2018: Salon Lyon ArtPaper, gallery La Pointe d’Argent (Lyon).