Rodriguez's practice is centered on painting, primarily figurative work that is grounded in reality. Painterly brushwork and moments of abstraction are utilized to explore these narratives and ideas.

The work serves as a vehicle to investigate the figure, art history, race and identity. What makes Irvin Rodriguez so wonderful is his bravado in utilizing loose, sweeping movements in the areas of his painting that surround the central figure. His brushwork has virtuosity and utter majestic flair, yet all to a purpose of the painting as a whole.

There is dynamic and joyous movement, whether it is bristling backdrop of brush worked, painted air space behind and around the subject, or a figure in a natural setting, with broadly suggested foliage which itself seems to be in rippling, active motion, swirling about a gorgeously painted central figure.