Born in Spain in 1991 and raised in Chile, Joaquín Villarino is a contemporary painter based in Los Angeles, California. His practice is rooted in the belief that painting can serve as both a personal document and a universal mirror — a place where private experience becomes shared feeling.

Working in mixed media across acrylic, oil, oil pastel, graphite, and charcoal, Villarino builds each composition through layered gesture and improvisation. His process is physical and intuitive, often involving performance, chance, and the deliberate tension between structure and release.

His recent body of work, The Shedding, began with a live performance in which a dancer moved across a large divided canvas — a choreography of color, life stage, and transformation. The resulting eight large-scale paintings, currently in development, represent his most ambitious series to date.