It’s tricky to imagine how one can chronicle a life in a series of spaces measuring 9 x 12 inches but this is what Raul Rodriguez has accomplished and constitutes his latest body of works. The life in question is, of course, that of the imagination with its menacing forms, surreal worlds, and dark undertones seething with presences.

Once transcribed on the page, these forms achieve a haunting rawness, deep and powerful sketches tight within a rectangular paper. They beat with apprehension and cast a shade of fear. But a burst of color occasionally interrupts the darkness. The thoughts may begin as chaotic in the mind but on the outside world, they are determinedly figurative.

Taken as a whole, his works are episodic, intermittent, just like life’s given randomness. They resist a smooth flowing narrative but link with each other through their texture, the drama of their forebodings, burning with a singular mind grappling with its tremendous, influential shapes.