A Little Closer
Summer, 2026
A Playboy pinup inspired by Texas two-stepping, minus the dress code.
R.F. Alvarez’s pinup painting for Playboy starts with a dance. The Austin-based painter—known for black-grounded scenes where figures glow—imagines two women caught in what he calls “a narrative of temptation,” moving together in “a sort of sensual waltz.” It is also a first, as Alvarez had never painted women nude before. The detail that nearly disappeared is the one that makes it click: that jol...
