Argentine painter, Pablo Robleda known for his formal acrylic paintings on wood and wall murals at different scales, began experimenting with pasteup techniques when he lost access to his studio in the aftermath of a horrific homophobic attack.  He was forced to relocate through a victim/witness protection program for his safety.  His relocation into a series of small living spaces led to a recalibration of his art practice, using simple tools, materials and pasteup strategies.  Palbo shares his story, including images of the resulting artworks and in-process work from this body of ongoing work.

A homophobic attack on my partner and I, led to relocation through a victim and witness protection program from August 2020 to January 2021, making it impossible for me to access and work in my studio.  This situation inspired me to tackle a project that enabled me to continue painting and, at the same time, test a more direct, urban, collaborative, ephemeral approach with pasteups. Given the limitation of tools and space, I discovered the pasteup technique, needing only small, lightweight tools and cheaper materials. I began using the pasteup process, projecting and thus producing "#Pasteup I Project", divided into two stages of production. To leave an urban imprint, I pasted the finished works in the area of ​​my hometown and neighborhood and on walls of places that I used to go to when I was a child, my elementary school, the club, etc.

The first stage: ten drawings based on my designs, made with acrylic on high-quality, acid-free, and highly resistant papers, pasted on different walls and urban spaces in my city (Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina) over two months.  The second stage print run will be pasted in the coming months. Surprisingly, shortly after making the first stickers, photographs of my #pasteup began to go viral on the internet, giving me feedback not only on good results, but on the urban need for art in the streets.

I have now returned to a studio and my traditional way of working with the materials and dimensions that I used before.  However, the #Pasteup Project is still in progress and I continue to work with this comfortable and inexpensive technique outside of the studio. My idea is to extend the project by making more and larger pasteups, sticking them up in the new neighborhood where I am now living.

¹ Pasteup is a composition on a sheet of paper, board, or other backing applied to a wall or object using wheatpaste. This technique allows street artists to put up detailed images quickly.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pablo Robleda (Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina) has been a painter since 2010.  He specializes in acrylic paint on wood and wall murals in different sizes (from 10cm x 12cm to 3m x 2m). He has been in solo and group exhibitions throughout the city. His paintings and drawings are in private collections and have been exhibited at a university in the center of the province of Buenos Aires in the city of Tandil and at the Secretary of Culture offices in the Province of La Rioja, among other locations.  He is currently working on a triptych based on certain ideas of form, color and impossible structures. Reproductions of his paintings can be found at  https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pablorobleda/