Luis Alvarez Roure is known for his figure and still-life paintings, as well as his portraits of international public figures such as composer Philip Glass, legendary Academy Award-winning actor José Ferrer, actress Anna Deavere Smith, and violinist Joshua Bell, among many others.

His works are held in many prestigious public collections, including the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Princeton University, the MEAM Museum in Barcelona, and Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico.

Luis was a finalist at the prestigious Outwin 2019 Portrait Competition, and in 2022, he won both the Draper Grand Prize and the People’s Choice Award at the 24th Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition.

His piece Ondine was inspired by a piano composition with the same name by the French composer Maurice Ravel. As a pianist himself, Luis draws inspiration from music in many of his figurative works. About Ondine, Luis says, “I’ve been obsessed with the piano piece by Ravel and with the Ondine mythological figure for quite a long time. I am fascinated by how Ravel conveys with his musical language the idea of the water nymph seducing a man into becoming her husband and luring him into the depths of the sea. In my practice as a painter, I juxtapose elements of realism with abstraction in search for psychological depth and atmosphere.”