Ricardo Cavolo

Ricardo Cavolo, born in Salamanca, Spain, spent a decade of his childhood living among the Roma people. Those early experiences and his fine arts training at Salamanca University continue to influence his art. His work is marked by bright and bold colors, and it often illustrates the lives and stories of characters at the margins of society—orphans, prisoners, and slum kids.

Cavolo’s richly symbolic, tattooed figures draw on folk imagery, and yet they appear in the most commercial and consumerist of places: city walls, storefronts, banners, sneakers, record covers, and the sides of airplanes and trains. His murals can be seen in Madrid, Montreal, Hong Kong, Paris, Kiev, Barcelona, and other cities around the world.

In addition Cavolo’s illustrations are featured in books, including some that he authored himself. He extends his artistic storytelling with delicately drawn lettered text. This can be seen in his new graphic diary, 100 Artists to Listen to Before You Die(Nobrow Press, September 2015), which has become a New York Times bestseller. The book illustrates the major musical influences on his art—from Bach to Radiohead—while sharing anecdotes from significant moments and relationships in his life.

While at Puget Sound Cavolo will work with students studying art and art history. The portrait painting workshop will engage in painting patterned, brightly colored heads with watercolor on paper.

The art residency and public events are sponsored by the Catharine Gould Chism Fund in the Humanities and the Arts, and Puget Sound’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Department of English, and Department of Art and Art History.