Leo Rebolledo
About the Create! Magazine 10th Anniversary Book: Create! Magazine is honored to celebrate a decade of contemporary art by publishing a look back at previously selected artists: their achievements, career growth, and more since being published. Stay tuned for the book launch in fall 2026, and join our newsletter to stay up to date.
Leo Rebolledo (Chile, 1980) is a visual artist based in the United States whose practice has centered for more than three decades on the exploration and expansion of oil pastel as a primary medium. Largely self-taught from an early age, he has developed a distinctive visual language that evolved from highly detailed realism toward a more gestural and distilled approach focused on intimate, spontaneous moments and the quiet presence of the human figure.
His work has received international recognition through exhibitions at institutions including the Salmagundi Club in New York and the MEAM in Barcelona, as well as features in prominent art publications. Rebolledo is a member of the American Artists Professional League and PoetsArtists, and his work is included in the Lunar Codex project.
In recent years, his practice has entered a new phase through an ongoing material investigation using wine as a pictorial medium. Combining conceptual interests in memory, time, and transformation with a rigorous technical methodology, Rebolledo has developed pioneering conservation-focused processes that address the permanence and stability of organic pigments. His current work operates at the intersection of tradition and experimentation, expanding the possibilities of contemporary painting through both material innovation and technical precision.
Artist Statement
My pictorial approach consists of creating a complex narrative through enigmatic and unsettling, often dreamlike, scenes imbued with great psychological expressiveness. My works are the result of subconscious impulses that I try to capture in images; an attempt to release a dreamlike beauty, a sense of apparent reality. They are recognizable and endearing places, laden with symbolism, where characters converge, suggesting unsettling and mysterious situations.
My realistic technique is influenced by a classical aesthetic, in search of a universal and timeless language and beauty through a contemporary vision that is reflected in the themes and narratives of my compositions. Through my art, I seek to open windows to my visions, encouraging the viewer to generate their own questions and answers, to complete an open story by exploring the depths of their own subconscious.
www.leorebolledo.com
