Rodrigo Alvarado was born in Santiago, Chile, in January 1976. He studied for a degree in art, and in his final year, won first place in the national engraving competition. After completing his studies, he lived in Havana for a year, where he specialized in engraving techniques. Upon his return, he held his first solo exhibition, entitled "The Art of the Sea."“The murderer knows more about love than the poet”
While making prints he paints large format paintings for his next exhibition: “Russian Roulette"In 2006, he became the youngest artist to enter the El Mercurio newspaper's art gallery. He was named a new artist, and his work was sold in several countries. His next exhibition“The illustrated dictionary of tragedy human”He managed to establish his work with various collectors, both nationally and internationally. He created nine signature tables (hand-painted), with three remaining in Europe and two in the United States in the hands of private collectors. In 2009, he held the exhibition“The impossibility of transcendence”at the Isabel Aninat gallery. After the exhibition opened, she received praise from curators and critic Waldemar Sommer in the newspaper Mercurio. The following year, she received an invitation from the Berlin gallery Okk to represent Latin America at the Long Night of Museums, opening the exhibition "“Packer of Desire”
After working with the same gallery owner for 20 years, his work has been exhibited and sold in more than 10 countries, entered museums and various private collections, and earned critical acclaim. In the words of German context curator Pablo Hermann: "Alvarado is one of the few artists globally capable of transforming waste into gold, alchemy at the highest level." His work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art of Chile (soon to open), the Palacio de la Moneda, and the Las Condes Municipality.
In 2019 he held an individual exhibition at the Las Condes cultural center.The sky still remembers with hatred the lightning wound"and three years later, he begins to write a novel which serves as a parenthesis to his artistic activity, currently resuming it to work on what will be his new exhibition in October 2025 in Berlin, Germany.
“My work is a space for poetic reflection,To do this, I use marginal language, such as animitas (little souls), scribbled walls, school blackboards, or a prisoner's love letters. I like to see myself as a realist painter because I essentially speak of man and his circumstances." ……… "My work is a mix of public bathroom writings and academic painting."