Since youth, Luis Alvarez Roure has had an obsession with drawing and painting the figure. This obsession was the start of a successful and beautiful artistic career that’s now culminated into an upcoming show with Stone Sparrow NYC this summer.

“I have asked myself so many times why I like the figure,” Roure explains. “When I was very little, I started having this passion for drawing. I had an obsession with the face. I’m not so sure why I draw the figure it was just always my inclination.”Four Seasons: Autumn, oil on wood, 42 x 24"

Although Roure’s work has usually been highly realistic, his style has now shifted to include abstract components, while also experimenting with texture and metallic paint. “I got tired of things being super finished,” he says. “So, it’s more like abstraction with realism.”

In Roure’s Four Seasons, a four-piece series showing women figures as the seasons, the backgrounds have been abstracted into metallic colors. Parts of the figure, while still remaining realistic, also fade into the swirling colors. “The background was about feelings,” says Roure. “It had to have some sort of energy, it had to please me. It was actually quite hard for me to get to the point that it worked for me. The feeling took a while and I changed the color and ideas many times.”Masquerade, oil on linen, 46 x 40"

Roure has also challenged himself technically by creating a series of 10 small studies called Etude, that only depict the face. Each is on a white background, while leaving spaces of the subject unfinished. “There’s a whole universe of every square inch of the body,” he explains. “I want to challenge myself to make it real. I’m obsessed with finishing the body in detail…I want to get better at painting eyes, flesh and skin tones.”

This study and desire for realism can also be seen in another show piece titled Odalisque. This is a classic theme by many renowned artists in history, with a nude female languidly sprawled on furniture or lavish beds. “I wanted to make my own interpretation of this classic theme, done by artists like Manet in his piece Olympia,” explains Roure. “That painting is what really inspired me to really try some things. It was really challenging and it turned into a very big painting.”Odalisque, oil on linen, 35 x 72"

The most impactful show piece and most recently painted is Masquerade, depicting a male figure putting on makeup against a white-sheeted background. Roure’s background in music has inspired the piece, and pulled this scene from the opera Pagliacci, by Ruggero Leoncavallo. The figure, a clown, finds out his wife has been unfaithful, and gets ready to perform even after finding out such crushing news.

“I can see the parallels in current life [with this painting],” furthers Roure. “I’m trying to depict how we as humans confront life in situations of pain and tragedy, through the image of a man covering up his face to masquerade his feelings. It’s a metaphor for having faith and to keep moving even if the world is being ripped apart inside you. We have to keep going. You have to go out and do your job and keep moving.” Etude no. 7, oil on wood, 8 x 6"

Roure will exhibit this summer with dates yet to be determined, so collectors are encouraged to periodically visit the Stone Sparrow website for updates. Roure hopes that viewers will find a personal connection with the work and have an experience all their own. “I like my viewers to describe the work and come up with a definition.” 

Roure leaves us with one of the most shared, but also one of the most truthful quotes in the art world, “Art can save us.” 

Stone Sparrow NYC
45 Greenwich Avenue • New York, NY 10014 •
(646) 449-8004 • www.stonesparrownyc.com 

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