Born in 1973 in Argentina. Currently lives and works in Rome.

Josefina Ayllón is an expressionist self-taught painter. She works in oil and acrylic paint and her subject matter focuses on portraiture.


In my paintings, I aim to avoid academic art. I flee from Renaissance perspective as well as from other techniques that attempt to deceive the viewer's mind solely to approach reality.

Instead, I am attracted to a certain clumsiness, to ecstatic yet strongly expressive figures, to an imperfect style of painting. My reality is the canvas. My reality is the paint.

I do not paint in layers, but in one single session. I want to think of my work as a series of paintings and drawings that gain meaning when viewed all together, rather than individually, like a unique and particular universe where each painting finds its place.

Like all painters, I do not choose either the subject or the style. I could paint anything, but in the end, I always find myself painting portraits. I have always found a prominent nose more fascinating than a vase of flowers.

All images @Josefina Ayllón