About The Artist

Rafael Perea de la Cabada, an award-winning artist, was born in Mexico City and has lived in Santa Barbara, CA since 1987.

Perea received a degree from the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking in Mexico City and went on to earn his M.F.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  He has exhibited at many galleries and museums in Southern California including the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Contemporary Arts Forum, The Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena and the Hunsaker-Schlesinger Gallery in Santa Monica.  He has also shown in New York, Washington, Tennessee, Texas, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Croatia, Spain and Germany.

His work is included in numerous public and private collections in Mexico, Switzerland, France, Germany and the United States.

Rafael teaches Advanced Painting and Drawing in the Fine Arts Department at Santa Barbara City College and has served as a Master Artist for mentorship programs, master classes, and mural projects for both the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and The Arts Fund.

He is currently working on a Public Art Commission with designer Richard Irvine (IrvineCabada ArtDesign) on the West Beach Pedestrian Improvement Project for the City of Santa Barbara.