David Rodríguez Caballero is one of Spain’s leading contemporary sculptors. He initially started out in cultural management before shifting his interest to creating art in 1998 and moving to the artistic hub of New York City, where he quickly earned an international reputation.

His current work can be framed within the tradition of and is the result of painstaking experimentation which takes its starting point in figurative elements.

Despite being a sculptor known for his exploration of the use of light and materials in three dimensions, it is worth underscoring the importance of paper in his output, given that all his work is ultimately based on drawing and painting. From his beginnings, Rodríguez Caballero has used paper as an embryonic support with which he develops a concept that he later materializes in three dimensions. With this fragile support, the artist experiments, rehearses and probes the plastic and formal possibilities of works that he then translates to aluminium, brass, copper or steel, giving these materials the delicate appearance of a thin sheet, while at once conveying the robustness of metal. However, Caballero also uses paper as a medium in itself and not only as part of his prior research.

This work from the BBVA Collection, made in 360g parchment paper and vinyl, belongs to the Origami series, which evinces the artist’s interest and fascination with this Japanese art form. This piece, in between two and three dimensions, creates a subtle and elegant chiaroscuro thanks to the masterful treatment of the materials. This untitled work is based on the idea of folds and explores the physical and conceptual potential of paper. Here it is not completely adhered to the ground as an element with the mere function of acting as a support, but is an essential part of the work itself.In addition, the piece subtly fuses painting and sculpture, as if it were a modelled painting or a drawn sculpture.

The result is a highly delicate and serene composition with which Rodríguez Caballero returns to the fold, a fundamental element in the history of art, very particularly during the Baroque period, adapting it masterfully to an absolutely contemporary aesthetic and visual language.