Valentino Campos
As a self-taught artist, how did you first begin drawing, and when did it become a serious artistic practice for you?
My earliest childhood memories are connected to drawing, so I can truly say that I learned to draw before I learned to speak.
Although drawing has remained a relatively constant part of my life, it wasn’t until 2018 that I started producing artwork on a regular basis, which I’ve continued to do to this day. Since that year, I can say that I’ve connected with my destiny, and that life experience has driven continuous learning that has led me to develop my own working method.
You describe your drawings as representations of “visions”. Where do these visions come from – dreams, literature, personal experiences, or the subconscious?
Yes, I do indeed describe them as visions. It’s not that dreams, literature, personal experiences, etc., don’t have some kind of impact on the art I create, I think all artists are influenced to some extent by all those things, but to be precise, even though they may seem like dreamlike representations, actually, they aren’t drawings of dreams; Those are drawings of visions that come to me while I’m awake and over which I have no power.
What attracts you to ominous imagery and dark surrealism, and what kind of emotional response do you hope to evoke in the viewer?
I believe that art that falls within those aesthetics; The Ominous, The Dark Surrealism, etc., possesses a capacity that other artistic movements lack: The potential to provoke a mental or emotional shock that causes people who encounter this type of artwork to suspend their rationality. In that sense, I would like people who view my art to set aside, for a moment, the need to explain what they see, and let them give in to uneasiness.
Valentino Campos | Piramidion | 2019
Piramidion was created in 2019, while Glimpse of Infinity dates from 2026. How do these two works reflect the evolution of your technique, interests, and worldview?
There is a seven-year gap between these two works, but curiously, there is something that connects them: Learning the art of drawing. Both works reflect my early years trying to master different drawing media and tools: In the case of Piramidion, it’s the pencil, and currently, Glimpse of Infinity drawn with an dip pen.
Unlike my technical evolution, my interests haven’t changed. I still consider the world around me a mystery as impenetrable as baffling.
Your drawings rely on meticulous linework, cross-hatching, and strong contrasts between light and darkness. Why is this monochromatic visual language important to your practice?
For some reason I don’t understand, the visions I have are often high-contrast, so I try to stay as true to it as possible to what I see inside myself.
The monochromatic nature of my drawings stems from the trance-like state I enter when I focus on the paper using a single color; there are no distractions there, and yet we live in a world that seems determined to prevent us from enjoying the pleasure of losing ourselves in thought.
How do you decide which symbols to include in a composition? Do they have fixed personal meanings, or do you prefer to leave them open to interpretation?
As I mentioned earlier, I have little intervention over the compositions that emerge in my drawings; however, I can’t deny that, as the years have gone by, I have noticed that certain elements are recurring, or that sometimes I venture an interpretation once the piece is finished, but in any case, I don’t have a definitive answer for each one.
Valentino Campos | Glimpse Of Infinity | 2026
To what extent have Santiago, Chilean culture, and your experiences exhibiting in Chile and Peru shaped your artistic imagination?
Since I have only exhibited once in Peru, I will focus on Chile. In Chile, cultural spaces and art galleries are few and far between. Rather, it is a scene marked by tension between high demand and limited supply. However, in recent years, self-managed cultural spaces have been emerging, where making art is an act of resistance. My theory is that this punk attitude fosters the existence of a certain type of marginal artist with whom I identify: Someone who goes against the grain and is fully committed to their own vision.