By GINNY VAN ALYEA

Rafael Blanco: Reflecting on a Decade of Public Art opened earlier this month at The Elmhurst Art Museum. The artist's solo exhibition is on view through January 5th. Blanco has cultivated a reputation for creating memorable works of public art over the past 10 years, and in recognition of the milestone many of his works have come indoors and are now on view all in one place. 

Blanco's work is deeply influenced by his own immigrant experience. The artist is originally from Spain. A video showing Blanco at work is a sort of love letter to the his adopted home. He speaks about feeling welcome in Chicago and the experience he had embracing a new country while maintaining his own identity and honoring his home country through his art – now as an artist, his goal is to unify people through his art. Known for works that are mostly on view outdoors, Blanco's exhibition at EAM is unusual for its scale and scope bringing public works into a gallery space – something Blanco said was really a unique opportunity. Elmhurst, he shared, really gave him complete freedom to exhibit his range of works collectively. At the preview he said, It's been an honor to do this exhibition.

The exhibition, which was inspired while John McKinnon was still Executive Director of EAM but which opened under interim Director Ann Quinn Kelly, introduces the viewer to Blanco’s artistic journey in a variety of ways: through photographs, videos of the artist's process, as well as large-scale new paintings and portraits. By bringing outdoor works into a gallery space, Blanco transforms EAM's galleries into a sort of urban landscape filled with color, texture, and the serendipity of discovering public art. Wandering through the galleries is not the same as happening upon a street-side mural, but the experience of having so many colorful and vibrant figurative works in one place intensifies the visual impression the viewer walks away with. 

Notably on display are many works that Blanco proposed to several organizations and institutions but which were ultimately rejected. Blanco uses this exhibition opportunity as a means of finally displaying works that might otherwise have never seen the light of day. And by moving the pieces from proposal sketches to full scale works he also worked to refine them. By exhibiting them viewers to the exhibition get to form their own opinion of whether these works are worthy of being shown. 

When I met Blanco at the museum, after I toured the inside galleries, we walked outside the museum into the park and towards the main road that runs by EAM. Blanco showed me an external wall of the museum where an existing You Are Beautiful work by artist Matthew Hoffman had been fading after being on view for several years. Blanco explained that when he was working to put his show together, the You Are Beautiful  was almost no longer visible. Blanco and EAM talked to Hoffman and Blanco presented a design that would go over the existing letters as a temporary installation while the exhibition is on view. Blanco told Hoffman, It is not beautiful anymore. He then asked, Is it OK if I make it beautiful again? Hoffman said of course. 

Blanco let me know he actually finished updating the work two days before the exhibition opened. His goal was to keep Hoffman's work while also bringing his style into it – to morph the sign into the colorful and vibrant style he says he is always looking for. By adding Spanish to the sign, this key collaborative work is in keeping with the bilingual pieces in the rest of the exhibition. 

Blanco shared that the experience of painting any mural is what he hopes to take with him once it's done. Once of the best memories, he says, from this exhibition was when a teenager was biking by the museum while Blanco was painting. Blanco shares, I was doing something with my brush, and I saw this girl stop and go back when she noticed the You Are Beautiful! He says he has grown with this work and he was so excited about seeing someone else's spontaneous excitement. Those are the moments he realizes, This is what I am trying to do – to get others just as excited. I love the act of painting more than the work itself. Being out in public is more fun that being in the studio.

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Rafael Blanco: Reflecting on a Decade of Public Art

Elmhurst Art Museum

Thru Jan 5, 2025

See more information on EAM's website