10 Questions with Rafael de la Noceda

Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine ISSUE18 | Featured Artist

Noceda is a contemporary mixed-media artist whose work is based on elements of abstract expressionism, minimalism, and conceptual art. His strong foundation in graphic arts, together with a deep fascination with anthropology and philosophy, shaped his unique artistic voice. Drawing from this multidisciplinary background, Noceda crafts compositions that challenge viewers' preconceptions, pointing out established dualities.

His work is distinguished by an innovative approach to materials, incorporating unconventional elements like sand, plaster, and found objects alongside traditional media. This deliberate fusion of materials serves not just as a technical choice, but as a metaphor for the breaking down of conventional boundaries in art and thought. Through his experimental techniques, each piece becomes a dialogue between medium and meaning, where texture and form, work in harmony to provoke deeper contemplation. His work dances around creating visual tensions between raw, organic materials and refined artistic techniques, reflecting the complex relationship between the thoughts of the individual versus the thoughts of contemporary society.

mrnoceda.com | @rafa_noceda

***Plastic Deities***, Mixed Media, Plaster, Acrylic Paint, Varnish, Hemp Rope, 13 x 13 x 27,5 cm, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda
*Plastic Deities* explores the complex relationship between Christian religious oppression and indigenous spirituality. Through abstract plaster sculptures of pagan deities enclosed in black body bags with hemp bindings, the work symbolizes the attempted suppression of native beliefs by Christian colonizers while acknowledging traditional burial practices. The artwork serves as both a memorial to historical trauma and a celebration of cultural resilience. Through the lens of mixed heritage, where oppressor and oppressed bloodlines converge, these bound deities challenge viewers to confront Christian imperialism's impact while witnessing the persistent strength of indigenous spiritual traditions that continue to survive despite systematic attempts at erasure.

AL-TIBA9 ART MAGAZINE ISSUE18

COMING SOON | PRINT MAGAZINE AVAILABLE FROM MAY 15th, 2025.

INTERVIEW

Please tell us a bit about your background. How did you develop into the artist you are today? And what training or experiences helped you along the way?

Talking about one's background is always interesting because both innate influences and lived experiences shape who we become as artists. I come from a background in digital graphic arts dedicated primarily to industrial print, ranging from the initial concept of a magazine to the post-production and distribution. However, art has always been present in my life, influencing, moulding and preparing me for this moment as an artist.
I come from a multicultural family with a Spanish mother and a Puerto Rican father, a younger sister born in the UK, and myself in Germany. I grew up in Germany, the UK, China, and Spain, where I currently reside. During these periods of adapting from one country to another, I was fortunate to meet and study with children from countless other countries. My first contact with the arts was through photography, reading National Geographic, and reading comics, specifically Calvin & Hobbes by Watterson. These two attention-grabbing moments marked my appetite to draw, illustrate, and find an artistic way of expressing what I felt and thought.
After high school, I pursued studies in design and layouts, studying graphic design within print. Here, I started growing a true love for Bauhaus, minimalism, brutalist architecture, and the marvellous composition work of Alphonse Mucha. For the next years, my focus was on digital compositions, graphic design, and instructional design for private companies, leaving aside my artistic expression as a whole. At the same time, feeding in tandem my passion and hunger for philosophy, archaeology, spirituality and anthropology that never left my side since I was a child.
In 2022, I decided to revive my artistic expression by finding my medium of expression, starting with pottery classes, where my mind could be quiet as it designed, crafted and painted the desired pieces. This naturally moved me in the direction of figurative painting, which had always felt intimidating until I finally made the jump. This gave me the space and personal validation to keep pushing my limits and forms of expression. As I grew more confident, my paintings grew bigger, and I was fortunate to find as well as being taken under the wing of an Art Studio (Club Bicefalo) in Carabanchel, Madrid. From here and under the tutelage of Alex Rispal and Valentina Vacco, I started exploring mixed media, where there was no limit, no barrier, just expression. This form gradually started bringing out within myself the concepts, ideas, criticisms and dualities that I wish to share.

***Darks***, Mixed Media, Sand, Plaster, Hemp Rope, Beer Cans, Glass, Acrylic Paint, 50 × 40 cm, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda
*Darks* is a screenshot of a situation or emotion that has been carbonized within us. As these pieces have no borders, there is no delimitation in them, which allows us to link other emotions. These explore our relationship with restrictions and ties, our fragility and our broken self, as well as our vices within the emotional mixture of sand that buries and hides them. Identifying these elements at a singular level allows us to better understand the relationship they have with each other.

Your work combines elements of abstract expressionism, minimalism, and conceptual art. Can you talk about how these influences converge in your practice and how you developed your unique artistic voice?

My current approach towards fleshing out an idea or concept rarely starts with running over to grab a pen and paper (at most, I'll write down a keyword). The idea sits in my head until I get to the studio and start creating it, however it might come out. This approach allows me to not be biased toward one specific form of expression, giving space for the piece to take shape at its own pace. I feel much more comfortable starting with a concept to explore and see where that takes me, where the piece is pushing me towards. It's a fun process as you throw perfectionism and ego out the window. You are there in the moment with a piece that gives you, the artist, the direction. The semi-experimental approach helps me tocreate a stronger dialogue between myself and the piece as well as the next steps to take from there.
Keeping this fluidity of creation is primal, as the piece itself can move into various forms of artistic expression throughout its creation. Having said this, my style does indeed come from various forms of abstract expressionism, minimalism, and conceptual art as a heavy influence on my form of expression. The combination of these, together with the usage of unconventional materials, such as sand and black paint, creates my unique artistic voice. I will always experiment and try new things, but always from a place of using what I know. With this, I will allow one or two elements to be unknown and reinforce it with techniques that I know work and are mine. This gives me space to try new things while at the same time staying true to my style and way of creating art.

You have a strong foundation in graphic arts, but you also draw inspiration from anthropology and philosophy. How do these disciplines inform your creative process and the themes you explore in your work?

As an individual, I've always been greatly attracted to the question of "why" around societies' normalization of behaviours, ideas and thoughts. This started with trying to understand why we label things, being the first one myself when asked, "Where are you from?". I love a good duality, as we need labels to understand, yet labels often misrepresent the entirety of what they're trying to define. It's these same concepts that I love playing with in conversations and when creating art. Growing up in a multicultural environment, I understood early on that what differentiates us is actually what connects us. However, as an introverted child, it was difficult for me to fit in and create interpersonal bonds with others, and it forced me into myself, my mind, and my inner world. I would delve into documentaries on science, history, the natural world, and anything that would both answer a question as well as create a new one, unlocking the notion of duality.
Transporting this over into art, my creative process normally stems from the duality of a thought or questioning a way of thinking that has been normalized by society. This allows me to further explore a concept and create artwork around it from a different point of view, which I very much enjoy doing. I feel that we all have different ways of creating an identity, either through actions, others, perfectionism, and the list continues. These explorations naturally lead to broader inquiries, all stemming from the foundational question of "why." That's the heartbeat of my artistic practice.

You use unconventional materials like sand, plaster, and found objects in your art. Could you elaborate on how these materials serve as both technical choices and metaphors in your work, as you mention in your statement?

Coming from an unorthodox approach to the arts, I found that I had more room to play with different types of mediums without casting judgment or labels on why I was using them. This exploration was immensely gratifying as I switched from pottery to paints, paints to sand, incorporating all previously explored mediums into my pieces. I was not so focused on what I was trying to say; I was focused on what interesting forms were coming out of this exploration. I fell in love with the rawness of using everyday materials, giving the banal rough materials a place in art more so than oil or acrylic paints. I wanted to give them the same space as materials used in the philosophy of Brutalist architecture, the fact that the material itself has its own life and beauty. This experimental phase led me to explore even more materials, like plaster and, more recently, string and grid-like structures.
This combination of usage of unconventional materials started off as what it is, a rebellion against the classification of what fine art materials are. However, by using them constantly, they started slowly turning into a hybrid of metaphors and technical choices. These materials are so versatile in concepts that it feels like a waste not to explore and use them as a form of expression as they carry so much weight, both visually and metaphorically. The fact that they are recognizable but using them and presenting them in a different form than we are accustomed to adds to my artistic expression of looking at life and experiences through a slightly different lens.

The work Plastic Deities explores the tension between Christian religious oppression and indigenous spirituality. What drew you to this specific theme, and what message do you hope viewers take away from the piece?

My fascination with "Spirituality" (within this term, we can add "Religion" and "Mythos" which to me are the same) started when I was a child, growing up with multicultural friends that had their Spiritual Practices. I quickly found that as humans, we all seek very similar things when it comes to Spirituality and Culture, we are united by our differences.Growing up in a Protestant family, my relationship with Christianity was an uncomfortable one as you are taught that your mission is to spread the word of God. Regardless of people's faith, you are there to save them and have the "right" to do so, as your deity is the one true God. That righteous, unquestioned indoctrination pushed me away from the institutional side of religion. As I began exploring other spiritual systems, I started to understand firsthand how powerful - and sometimes dangerous - religious structures can be.
This transported me into exploring the side of religious practices within countries that have been colonized by a Christian country, which is the vast majority of countries, competing with its Islamic counterpart. Within this, we have many accounts, documents and accounts of the oppression of the people within these colonized countries but speak little of the spiritual oppression. From here, Plastic Deities was born into existence as a reference and reminder of these gods that were killed, wrapped and bound by Christianity when oppressing the people. These statues still hold a figurative form and still keep their presence as a ritualistic object; however, we can only imagine what the long-lost god looks like in the eyes of the people. This has a duality that I wish to explore further, which is the willing acceptance of the death of these deities by the oppressed, which is another layer of this whole concept that I wish to explore.

***Dark Fragility***, Mixed Media, Sand, Plaster, Glass, Acrylic Paint, 50 × 40 cm, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda

Your piece, Tomb of Dark Vices, includes a ritualistic element, with the use of beer cans representing your two years of sobriety. How do you use rituals and symbols in your creative practice, and what do they symbolize for you personally?

This was a very fun piece to create and, most of all, to explore. Dark Vices is the largest piece from a series I did around normalizing aspects that we tend to see as negative within mental health. From this, I took the darkest thing I could find, which was my past relationship with alcohol. Being an obsessive person, I found at a young age that alcohol was a perfect remedy for stopping the gears of my mind and for being in the moment. These two factors allowed me to be myself, come out of my cage, to not obsess over the little things, and feel. However, when one is obsessive, this can go downhill pretty quickly with no breaks. Understanding where I was, why I was drinking and what it was causing, I decided to put a full stop to this behaviour and lifestyle that I had created.
Tomb of Dark Vices is a temple and mausoleum to my relationship with alcohol, where every can of beer was a beer bought, drained and placed once by one as a tribute and offering. This ritual of opening a beer one by one, as I was pouring it down the drain, as intense as I was surrounded by the smell. Evoking old memories and the pleasures of drinking, with each can open, the temptation of having a drink was stronger. Once dried and added to the piece, I started to paint everything black, reminding myself unconsciously why I stopped, as these memories and instances floated to the top of my mind throughout the process. Once the piece was done, looking at it like a portal into a different time, the beauty of something so dark started to take shape within the textures.
This living of my emotional experiences through the creation of pieces is my ritual. This emotional translation through art is my ritual. When I don't yet know how to feel something, I often find that it already lives within a piece I'm making. Symbolism is key, as I think just like the world we live in is abstraction at its finest, we use symbols to guide or identify where we are at that certain point. I do find that within the obsessive and chaotic ways of living and experiencing life, creating a ritualistic approach when creating art helps to ground me in the present and in the moment. Rituals help me wind down the revolutions of my mind and focus solely on what I'm doing, allowing my mind to focus that obsessive nature into the possibilities of a piece.

Your works seem to have a deep connection to your personal experiences. How do you balance personal experiences with broader, universal themes in your work?

As an artist, I can't see a situation where personal experience is not woven into your artistic expression and the pieces that you create. Having said this, the deeper the connection, the further the expression is represented. In the end, for myself, art is my way of expressing my experience of life in everything that it envelops. Universal themes aren't fixed, they'rebuilt through countless individual experiences, each one valid and unique. I feel that separating these two concepts creates the extreme divide that we are accustomed to in the way we portray the us/them in many themes. I very much like the approach of "Yes, and…" more than the "Yes, but…" as it invites conversation rather than creates division.
Personally, I very much enjoy the personal rawness of an artist. I find that these ways of expression create deeper conversations around interesting subjects and themes. My personal experiences are constant and everchanging in regard towhat I feel, understand and interact with. Art has allowed me to dive deeper into myself and what I feel and understandabout myself, creating both an expose of my inner mind and an outlet of expression. The more I find myself exploringdifferent forms, materials and overall structures around a concept, the more these connections expand. The balance that I do see is not so much about how to balance personal with broader experiences, but more about what people are going tothink; this kills creativity and messages. This is a prime example of what I went through with the pieces "Dark Deities", where my personal experience and criticism are tough to swallow for some Christians, making me question the validity of my personal experience. But I realized that discomfort is part of the message. This is my lived experience, and it has a place in the broader narrative.

***Tomb of Dark Vices***, Mixed Media, Sand, Plaster, Hemp Rope, Beer Cans, Acrylic Paint, 250 x 80 cm, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda
*Tomb of Dark* Vices is both a mausoleum and a temple to the artist's relationship with alcohol. This piece represents the ties that bound him to drinking and the carbonized memories of what was once a dark vice. During the creation of this piece, Noceda bought, emptied, and placed 17 beer cans as a ritual confirming his 2 years of sobriety. The restrictions and vices mix with the sand, representing the primordial emotional element that we all keep, where elements that we need to manage are buried and covered. The frame surrounding the piece represents the management of that emotion or situation, which Noceda leaves open at the bottom as it is in constant verification.

***Tomb of Dark Vices (detail)***, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda

Looking ahead, what projects or themes are you most excited to explore in your future work? Are there new materials or concepts you're eager to experiment with?

Oh, there are so many themes that I would love to dive into headfirst and explore different ways of displaying them. Currently, I'm working on various subjects at the same time, trying to give them breathing room so I can flesh them out better; however, the use of new materials is constant. In regard to themes, I wish to go into darker themes, raw and uncut, themes that I would shaggy away from since I first felt the weight of existence and depression. I feel that these subjects are more relevant than ever in this fast-paced world where structure, identity and understanding of oneself are challenged by the status quo. We live in a fascinating time where we are overloaded with information, trains of thought, and an extreme case of globalization that allows us to bathe in diversity and, at the same time, makes us feel that we are not enough. I feel that these subjects, together with the dark side of the human condition, are subjects that I wish to tap into this year.
With materials, at the moment, I'm experimenting with string and how they react and interact with my current use of materials. This exploration came naturally as I'm creating a piece around scientific methodologies of identification and classification. As mentioned before, the concept and idea are what drive me to explore materials that might work in conveying this. When creating that concept, there are beautiful moments where something interesting might happen and I continue to explore the material, parking the initial idea to further explore. I very much enjoy creating and exploring new materials this way, it gives you space to breathe and doesn't tie you down. Like string, there are materials that I wish to explore as I see great potential in them, such as spray foam, glass, textile, plastic sheets and epoxy to mention the first ones that come to mind.

In a fast-paced world, what do you think is the role of art in addressing pressing themes? What is the artists' key role in helping the public reflect on themes such as yours?

As an artist, every voice is valid in what they wish to say as, in the end, it's their way of experiencing the world and society we all live in. Should an artist wish to speak of relevant and pressing themes or capture a simple sunset, it is up to them. That being said, for me, the moment an artist finishes a painting, it is no longer theirs to force an interpretation on, as it is now part of society and their opinions. The only role I have as an artist is being true to myself in expressing what I feel and experience. I enjoy presenting and addressing themes that are part of our normalized society that question that very foundation. I find that current pressing themes are merely the result of a behaviour and normalized condition whose underlying layers and roots I'm most interested in. Each artist has their truth, compass and goals when creating art where these can express reflections on pressing themes that are currently relevant.
However, if we turn to art as the form that solely addresses pressing themes, then as a society, we have failed to exert the pressure on the correct group of people that have been placed in power to do so. We enjoy and consume rebellious art and allow art to be the reflection of what we truly think, taking solace in sharing, liking and identifying with it, but not making any physical attempt to change or address the theme. We live in an era where art no longer has the same power as it did to create the spark or feed the flames of rebellion towards pressing themes as we are comfortable consuming, liking and siding but not taking direct action against it.

***Key Triggers I***, Sand, Plaster, Hemp Rope, Beer Cans, Acrylic Paint, 25 × 25 cm, 2025 © Rafael de la Noceda
Mental triggers can lead us to a state that we do not desire or that is harmful to us. Therefore, it is important to find these triggers, identify them, and expose them to understand how we function.
*Key Triggers* is a map that allows us to understand what elements are comprised within our emotions, allowing us to discover more about ourselves as we progress.

And lastly, what do you wish to accomplish this year? What is your biggest goal for 2025?

This year, my goal is to keep venturing down the path of exploration of materials, as well as to dive more into sculptural pieces. I want to start breaking the conventional supports that I've been creating so far and delve into abstract forms, playing with visual perceptions and points of view. There are topics that I would love to develop further and others that I would like to start exploring, going deeper and darker. To be honest, this year, my focus is on creating various series within these lines of exploration, both materials and themes, to better hone my artistic voice. I think this year will provide me with good opportunities as an emerging artist. So far this year, I've been fortunate to be able to show my pieces in three exhibitions and to be given a platform to interact as well as present them. These have led to further exposure and setting up conversations for future exhibitions and exposure, which is an affirming feeling as an emerging artist.
For other emerging artists, I'd say: find a group of artists that can provide support, constructive feedback, as well as hard truths. I'm truly grateful to have the support of family, friends and other artists, as well as Club Bicefalo, the joint studio where I reside. The important thing is to never stop, keep creating, find your moments to expose your ideas, thoughts and art.

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