El Rayo, the award-winning London tequila brand, announces their latest artist commission with Margate-based collage artist Alice Isaac, whose new works reinterpret the colourful world of El Rayo through collage and animation.
El Rayo believes that great spirits and great art are made the same way – with creativity, patience and time. They’ve invited Alice to reimagine their world in a partnership that puts human-led creative expression front and centre, at a time when that distinction really matters.
From 18th May, El Rayo will be exhibiting Alice’s work on the London Underground and in the city’s creative neighbourhoods. With a series of still collages and two animations showcasing the colourful world of El Rayo through Alice’s eyes. Audiences will also have a chance to own a piece of the collaboration themselves, through a run of 100 Limited Edition bottles available from early June.
The commission is the latest in what El Rayo intends to be a long-running series: collaborations with artists and makers who share the brand’s instinct for originality without shortcuts.
“El Rayo has always believed that Tequila is an artform,” said El Rayo’s CEO, Tom Bishop. “Every choice we’ve made – from meeting Oscar Garcia in Jalisco and building the brand alongside our own in-house artist Mario Hgno in Guadalajara, to collaborating with artists and working with Alice now – has been about finding people who refuse to take shortcuts because they know that’s where true artistry lies. What Alice does with collage feels kindred to what we do with Tequila: she takes existing materials and transforms them into something entirely new with some creative imagination. That’s the spirit of this collaboration.”
Alice Isaac is based in Margate and describes herself as self-taught – though that undersells the discipline behind her work. Her practice sits somewhere between the analogue and the digital, blending the two: she cuts, layers and reworks physical materials by hand, then pushes the results into three-dimensional and animated spaces, producing textural, surreal worlds that feel alive. It’s a process driven by instinct rather than blueprint, with a deep investment in the tactile and the slow.
Alice has never followed a prescribed route, which means she’s arrived at her own visual language without anyone else’s rules getting in the way. For El Rayo – a brand that started by ignoring what Tequila was supposed to be and asking what it could be – that kind of independence is exactly the point.
“I’ve always been drawn to work that embraces my analogue collage process,” said Alice Isaac. “The cutting, the layering, working with the tactility of printed imagery – for me, that’s the most exciting way to work. Partnering with El Rayo felt like a natural fit because they’re not interested in the easy version of anything and having a brand supporting craft is so refreshing, it gives you hope for the future of creativity. They wanted me to interpret their world, my way. That kind of trust is rare and I think it shows in the work.”
El Rayo’s origins are worth revisiting here, as they’re a true reflection of what this campaign is all about. The founders’ journey started a few years ago. After falling in love with the spirit in South London, they followed their instincts to Mexico to get closer to a craft and story that had got lost on its way over – somewhere underneath sticky floors and plastic shot glasses. There, they found something different: makers like Maestro Tequilero Oscar Garcia, who had Tequila production down to a fine art: 100% blue agave, grown over eight years, distilled twice, hand-bottled at source. No half measures and no mass-production.
Alongside local artist in Guadalajara, Mario Hgno, who saw a canvas where others saw a bottle, they built El Rayo the same way. By giving people the time and space to do things properly. Because when you let people cook, that’s when the magic happens. Mario’s stayed at the heart of El Rayo, from their labels to the growing brand world and original artwork which also feature in Alice’s pieces. One artist’s work feeding another’s.
The campaign launches across London from 18th May. Limited edition bottles will be available from June via elrayotequila.com
