Juan Carlos Rayas - Daphne I

Juan Carlos Rayas (born 1976 in Alicante, Spain) is a sculptor and a graduate in Fine Arts from the San Carlos Faculty in Valencia, with training at the Prague School of Art and Design. He currently develops his work in collaboration with @claroagallery, the gallery that represents his work and with which he drives the development of his most recent projects.

Since the late nineties, his sculptural practice has explored the relationship between nature, time and matter. Through direct stone carving and dialogue with woods eroded by drought, the climate, or the action of insects, he explores processes of transformation, the memory of materials, and the continuity between the organic and the mineral, understanding sculpture as a space for research and knowledge.

Dafne I inaugurates Arbor Mundi, a series inspired by world mythologies where metamorphosis symbolizes the continuity between humanity and nature. More than illustrating the classical myth, the work proposes a contemporary reflection on growth, memory, and transformation as processes shared by all living beings.