Abella, Rodolfo

Rodolfo Abella (b. 1954) was born in Tucuman, Argentina. His father was employed as a civil servant and his mother was a teacher. He spent his holidays at a farm in the country, and often went horse-riding. He subsequently embarked upon studies in agronomy, which he abandoned to study at the Faculty of Arts in the regional university. He currently teaches ceramics, drawing and painting in an aboriginal community and lives in a small village in the Andes.

Rodolfo Abella devoted himself to modelling, as well as drawing and painting, before creating his first sculptures.
He works with various materials – in particular plaster, concrete, iron and soldered metal plates – but his favourite support is recycled wood. From the riverbeds he gathers old and weathered branches and roots whose shape, colour and texture evoke animals in his mind. He then assembles them with the aid of a system of pegs or pins, creating forms that are entirely transparent.