IMPERMEABLE MAN

The character of the Impermeable man represents the contemporary plastic individual who, in an effort to protect himself, chooses isolation. This figure embodies a human condition marked by the denial of sensory and emotional contact: nothing goes in, nothing comes out. Just as a raincoat prevents water from touching the skin, this symbolic layer also blocks stimuli, emotions, and even the desire for connection.

Contemporary psychology distinguishes two archetypes: the being who armors himself against the world, refusing to be penetrated by experience; and the one who, locked within himself, has lost the ability to project outward. Both coexist within an invisible boundary, defined by a second skin that separates them from others and from themselves.

These individuals tend to be deeply destructive and self-destructive, often as a consequence of their lack of empathy. Their emotional disconnection not only prevents them from forming bonds but also fuels latent violence. This is where the world suffers today—with multiple flashpoints of war igniting across the planet. One of the characters—biting into a B-2 bomber—symbolically embodies this bottled-up rage, this incapacity for connection that leads to destruction.

Moreover, these beings bare their teeth as a primitive gesture of defense or threat. That is why nearly all the figures in this series display visible teeth: as a warning, a stifled scream, or an animal trace in the face of fear, evoking vulnerability.

This body of work brings together painting and drawing, in an attempt to make visible the translucent barrier that has become part of our daily lives—a plastic skin that, far from protecting us, has silently shaped our ways of feeling, inhabiting, and existing.

.BIO

Raúl Cerrillo (Mexico City, b. 1977) is a multidisciplinary artist, best known for his energetic large-format paintings. His work focuses on exploring and representing the psychological and spiritual complexity of the human being.

His practice moves from a neo-baroque figuration to a visceral and immediate neo-expressionist abstraction, characterized by the consistency of distinctive and straightforward archetypal symbols, with which he builds a subjective narrative for the viewer.

He conceives his work through vast layers of paint and meaning, as a way of understanding the formation of individuality and life itself through layer upon layer of experience. As a result, Cerrillo’s body of work reveals a remarkable evolution in virtually every aspect of his craft: style, medium, composition, and subject matter.

He studied in Mexico City at the National School of Painting, Sculpture, and Printmaking “La Esmeralda.”

His work has been presented in both solo and group exhibitions in Mexico, the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom.

His paintings have been recognized with numerous grants, awards, and honorary mentions. In 2018, he received Mexico’s National Painting Award, “Alfredo Zalce.”

Most recently, he has presented solo exhibitions at Visu Contemporary in Miami and at the Embassy of Mexico in Berlin, Germany.