Volcan (Rex & Edna): Biography

Artist in One Sentence

Volcan is the collaborative artistic identity of Rex and Edna, a Dutch–Colombian artist duo whose contemporary paintings use symbolism, portraiture and the visual language of everyday life to explore movement, identity, displacement and shared human experience.

Artist Profile

Working under a single name, Rex and Edna bring two perspectives into one exacting visual practice. Their paintings draw on backgrounds in design, visual communication and fashion, combining compositional clarity with an openness that allows the viewer to complete the narrative. Familiar signs, fragments of urban life and recognisable cultural forms become points of entry into larger questions of belonging, memory and human connection.

The Roadworks series demonstrates this approach with particular force. Selected items found on the road are incorporated into works, bringing physical traces of urban movement into dialogue with painted barriers, markings and provisional routes. Together, these elements turn the infrastructure of the street into a language for movement, interruption and change. Elsewhere, Volcan’s portraits of refugees centre individuality and dignity. These works resist reducing a person to circumstance; instead, they invite sustained attention to presence, character and the complexity of lived experience.

Volcan’s participation in the Venice Biennale forms an important part of the duo’s international profile. Across exhibitions and studio presentations, their work shows how contemporary painting can address urgent social realities without becoming prescriptive. Colour, beauty and visual intelligence draw the viewer close; meaning unfolds more slowly through reflection and conversation.

Gallery Les Bois represents Volcan because the practice aligns aesthetic conviction with conceptual rigour. The work is socially alert yet generous, offering collectors paintings whose relevance is not exhausted by a single moment. Each composition is made to endure visually and intellectually, continuing to reveal new relationships as personal experience and the world around it change.

Sustainability & Practice

For Volcan, environmental responsibility is expressed through attentive studio decisions and through an understanding of sustainability as a social as well as ecological question. Within the Roadworks series, selected items found on the road are incorporated into artworks, giving overlooked traces of urban life a new material and narrative role. This reuse is specific to the series and should not be taken to mean that reclaimed materials define the duo’s entire painting practice.

Volcan’s wider practice connects stewardship with cultural memory and human dignity. By bringing road-found elements, urban systems, movement and displacement into dialogue, the work considers the relationships between people and place while preserving painting as a durable form. The result is art intended for long-term looking: materially considered, visually compelling and capable of sustaining discussion across generations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Volcan?
Volcan is the collaborative artistic identity of Rex and Edna, a Dutch–Colombian artist duo represented by Gallery Les Bois.

What is Volcan known for?
Volcan is known for contemporary paintings that translate symbols, portraiture and urban visual culture into open narratives about identity, migration, empathy and shared experience.

What is the Roadworks series about?
The series uses the temporary structures and markings of the street to reflect on movement, disruption, borders and change.

Has Volcan participated in the Venice Biennale?
Yes. Participation in the Venice Biennale is part of Volcan’s international exhibition history.

Does Volcan work with reclaimed materials?
Within the Roadworks series, Volcan incorporates selected items found on the road. This material reuse belongs to that body of work; the duo’s broader practice remains painting-led and should not be described as wholly defined by reclaimed materials.

Related Reading & Viewing

Read Excavating the Surface: On Roadworks by Volcan for a closer view of the series and the duo’s thinking. Wider context is available in The Future of Sustainable Art and Artnet: Sustainability and Artistic Rigour.

Events and Exhibitions

Art Beyond the White Cube: An Intimate Evening with Volcan in Notting Hill took place on 30 April 2026 in a temporary Notting Hill setting, bringing collectors into direct conversation with the artists and their work. Volcan also featured in The Art of Presence: Reflections from Offline, Notting Hill 2025, held from 9 to 22 July 2025. Visit the Volcan events page for the latest programme.

View and Enquire

Explore available and selected works by Volcan. To discuss availability, provenance, placement or a private viewing, please contact Gallery Les Bois.