Inside Ricardo Cavolo’s wild drawings

As he releases a new book, the Barcelona-based artist talks to us about his creative process, and what it’s like to be introduced to the visual arts from the day you were born

To say Ricardo Cavolo had an early introduction to art would be something of an understatement. Born in his father’s painting studio in Salamanca, it was perhaps an inevitability that his life’s work would be in the visual arts.

He acknowledges that his father’s work has had an influence on him. “There was always a creative atmosphere at home. In fact, our house was more just a studio [where there was] painting, sculpture, photography, screenprinting. In addition, I was a lonely kid, so I spent a lot of hours reading books, comics and watching movies and cartoons, and that helped me to create in my head,” he says.

“Living in that space makes it easy to understand that a life as an artist [is possible], having creativity as your main tool. It was like discovering very early that there was an alternative life.”

Throughout his career, Cavolo has built up a portfolio that embraces potent colour palettes and a regular dose of pop cultural cues, with previous books focusing on lists of his favourite musicians and movies. In his latest title, Expo Book, he’s taken his celebrity obsession one stage further, creating a book where the pages are deliberately designed to be torn out to display on walls.