David Rufo is a painter whose work centers on the physical and perceptual experience of paint. Working primarily in oil, he explores how gesture, material, and surface interact—allowing each mark to remain visible as both an action and a record of its making. His paintings move between intimacy and immersion, inviting close attention to the nuances of a single stroke while opening into larger, atmospheric fields.

Rooted in memory, his work draws from sensory impressions of childhood—bright plastics, chrome reflections, and the saturated visual language of mid-century American life. These influences are not depicted directly but re-emerge as color, rhythm, and form, hovering between abstraction and recognition.

Rufo’s practice is shaped by an ongoing engagement with the history of painting, as well as by his background as an educator. Observing the intuitive, unselfconscious mark-making of children continues to inform his approach, reinforcing a commitment to painting as a direct, exploratory act.

He lives and works in the United States.