Vargas-Suarez Universal (Rafael Vargas Suarez) was born in 1972 in Mexico City. Mexico and raised in Houston, Texas, near NASA . He attended the University of Texas at Austin between 1991 and 1996, studying Astronomy and Art History. He then moved to New York, studying the Mini-Med School Program at New York University between 1999 and 2000. The majority of VSU’s work evolves in a spontaneous and automatic way; large-scale paintings and murals do not come out of smaller works or preparatory sketches, the former always in and of themselves being complete and finished works based on fully matured ideas and concepts. VSU develops each painting or wall mural directly and independently, placing each line and form with a confidence that gives a calculated and precise result even though the artist does not utilize any tools or instruments that would help him. In fact, this low-tech meets high-tech aspect is significant especially, for instance, where a seemingly “high-tech” or scientific subject matter is presented on such a traditionally noble and organic material as wood. Sound and, specifically, music are also an important element in his process, such as the ballpoint drawings where he records the sound of the pen scratching the paper surface, or his multimedia collaborations. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.