The strange imagination of Rafael Trelles inspire images of a world transformed into a bizarre habitat for enigmatic creatures and weird vegetation. The surreal metamorphosis of extraordinary environments into a playground of odd characters is like a theatre of the absurd for his own poetic visions. Emerging out of the visual exercises practiced by the Surrealists who extolled the virtues of subconscious automatism as the basis of their creativity, the varied techniques applied by Rafael Trelles contribute to the works’ incomprehensibility. The diverse surface textures range from those based on exact realism to imitation collage and transparent faux tissue motifs, and are further enhanced by the exquisite precision of his drawing. The combination of painterly surfaces with linear complexity further subverts intentions of the recognizable into that of the totally strange, all the while apparently condemning (albeit wittily) what is basis to all: the inadequacies of worldly existence and the fate of the human – condition.

As his human characters suffer their aesthetic transformations with humor and grace, they reveal complex patterns within the transparency of their shapes and forms. Reminiscent of the great Surrealist master Max Ernst’s experiments with surface patterns and his efforts to exploit the chance meetings of planes through what he described as “the alchemy of the visual language,” the diaphanous subjects invented by Rafael Trelles interact upon and within the same remote realities. As if “rubbed” from beneath the surface, his images emerge like the “frottages” of Ernst and such followers as Remedios Varo who explored the potential of paper traceries to accidentally describe remarkable new images and their backgrounds. It is the same liberation from the precise definition of reality that appears in the works painted by Trelles and confounds their exact interpretation.

The unique metamorphosing quality of his paintings appears to involve two different categories of images: figurative and natural. Frequently, they interact; further confusing their meaning. Figures are also transformed as nature, and nature transformed as figures, one obsessively defined within the shape of the other. There is something threatening about this interaction and the artist’s apparent need to fill the void of a shape’s contour with the transmutation of magical substance and mythical characters. It is the excellent command of linear patters marking the forms within and without that’s makes the transformation so effective. Only his brilliant colors save the works from being nightmarish and frightening. His painting have the potential to evoke the myth of dreams and create a confusion that disorientates as much as it directs. The viewer is left with the fascinating task of deciding meaning and deciphering realities.

The figures that dominate the images of Rafael Trelles are incomplete, fragmented, distorted and often transparent. They may appear out of nowhere, like visions or ghosts, or reveal themselves as substantive and real. They are most engaging when created as composites with animals, fish, birds, vegetation and objects. One is reminded of the abilities of Shamans to transform themselves into animal spirit – helpers to facilitate communication with an “otherworldly” dimension of existence. Often, the Shaman is caught between the two realities and manifests himself / herself as a composite being in the midst of transformation as he / she evokes the powers of the animal most necessary to achieve the ritual. Not only the apparent composite of such extraordinary personalities is revealed in the painting of Rafael Trelles, but also the elements of the voyage into the spiritual world of ritual communication and assistance that is the most meaningful component of the Shaman’s ceremonial objective. It is as if his creatures are embarking on a journey into eternity, or is it just a rite of passage? From the most literal flights of fancy visualized as a figure part – kite, part – man, to the creature piloting a boat – like contraption, Trelles invents the images of enigmatic excursions that range from the humorous to the occult. More questions than answers appear in his surreal and puzzling works.

Certainly a significant aspect of Latin American and Caribbean artist working within the framework of Surrealism, which Trelles is undoubtedly doing, is the attention to nature, the landscape and their transformation as a central theme related to the mythical as it emanates from the subconscious. His poetic visions distill a tropical landscape into one of sparkling waters and tree bark textures marked by the complex patterned lines of his distinctive “rubbed” surface technique. Amazing vistas across water and the endless horizons of blue skies and clouds are convincingly beautiful and based on the most precise perceptions of nature, although merely fantasies of the subconscious. The real landscape is too tame for Rafael Trelles so he seeks out its more mysterious forces. Nature comes alive as her spiritual counterparts are revealed from within the layers of paint to emerge out of leaves and trunks and the remnants of the lush tropics. Because the human mind, especially the mind of the artist, is full of strange convolutions echoed in nature, he has created its counterpart in paint, manipulated to enhance the drama of the story. In his story, figures of remarkable description coexist in a world of birds, animals, serpents and fish. It is a forest primeval gone tropical, inspired by the luxuriant island of Puerto Rico rather than by Medieval legend. He paints a wilderness of richness, not desolation, in which every twig and leaf is vital, and interacts as human and extravagantly fantastic.

Rafael Trelles is a poet who gives artistic form to his personal visions through layered and fragmented imagery filled with ambivalence and ambiguity. The assemblage of apparently disconnected characters, flora and fauna, is given new meaning as part of the artist’s own mythical information system. With wit and parody, he raises questions about the role of human being in the landscape of time and place. The viewer is lured into a magical world created with extraordinary combinations of surface textures employed to release the essence of extraordinary characters. The nature of the tropics is in the service of the artist’s vivid imagination.