Abel Alejandre

Abel Alejandre
Born 1968
Apatzingán, Michoacán, Mexico
Nationality American
Education Long Beach City College
Known for hyperrealism drawing woodblock prints

Abel Alejandre (1968, Michoacán, Mexico) is a Mexican-born, United States-based hyperrealist artist, best known for his explorations of masculinity and vulnerability. Working primarily in pencil, Alejandre creates intricately cross-hatched drawings that can take months to complete.[1] Alejandre's series of twelve panels, "Panoramas," is featured at the Los Angeles Metro Rancho Park/Westwood station.[2]

Alejandre also creates woodblock prints using both a giant press he built himself and by hand printing. His monumental My Fathers, which is in the permanent collection at the National Museum of Mexican Art, in Chicago, IL, was created by the latter method.

Early life and education

Abel Alejandre was born in Apatzingán, Michoacán, Mexico. As a young child he worked in the cotton fields to earn money for his family.[2] In 1975, when he was 7, the family immigrated to the United States via Tijuana where he encountered running water, electricity, and television for the first time.[1] Alejandre grew up in the Long Beach area of Southern California and attended Long Beach City College, graduating with an Associate of Arts degree.[3][4]

Work

After painting in color for 25 years, Alejandre began working in black and white, becoming completely focused on creating monochromatic works.[5] His trademark crosshatching is created by gessoing and sanding the surface of the canvas or panels and then beginning work with pencil. A single piece of art can take over 5 months to complete, with the artist working 10 to 12 hours a day, and can use over 700 pencils.[1][6] In 2013, Alejandre was announced as one of eight grantee artists whose art would be installed at one of the Los Angeles Metro stations along the new Expo line that runs from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica beach. His twelve panels, “Panoramas,” are displayed at the Rancho Park/Westwood station. Panels “depict the legs of travelers headed to their destinations: a business professional with her rolling briefcase, a parent with a stroller, and a hummingbird in flight,” creating “story of place through the act of commuting.”[7] His gallery work focuses around issues of machismo and masculinity and he uses art “as a means to acknowledge and process what he confesses to be ‘past insecurities, insults, and painful memories.’” [4]

Alejandre created murals for the 1984 Olympic Games and in 2005 curated and staged an exhibition of Mexican and American artists on the border fence in Mexicali/Calexico border.[3][8] In 2011, he worked with the gallery, Avenue 50 Studio, a recipient of Southern California Council for the Humanities grant on "Resurrected Histories: Voices from the Chicano Arts Collectives of Highland Park." His art is featured in the book Drawing from the Inside Out: Projects for Beginning through Advanced Drawing,[9] and he is featured in two films by Eric Minh Swenson.

Alejandre's artworks have been exhibited at venues that include Coagula Curatorial Gallery, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Tropico de Nopal and the Mexican Cultural Institute. His monumental wood block print, My Fathers, is part of the permanent collection at the National Museum of Mexican Art, in Chicago, IL.

Public Collections

Select Exhibitions

2016

2015

self) portraits #2, Curated by Adelinda Allegretti, Cypress College Art Gallery, Cypress, CA, USA

2014

2013

Latino Heritage, ChimMaya Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

¡Presente! Homenaje a la Mujer, Avenue 50, Highland Park, CA

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

Recent Works, East of Getty Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA, USA

1999

Selected Works, MOLAA (Museum Store), Long Beach, CA, USA Recent Works, Whittier Art Walk, Whittier, CA, USA

1989

Fiesta en la Playa I, Long Beach, CA, USA Sponsored by KVEA CH 52

1987

Long Beach Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA, USA

  1. 1 2 3 Schroeder, Amy Newlove. "Metro Artist Abel Alejandre Draws Fallen Superheroes". lamag.com. Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  2. 1 2 Fuentes, Ed. "Station Art Revealed for Phase 2 of Metro Expo Line". KCET.org. KCET. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  3. 1 2 "Artist: Abel Alejandre". metro.net. Metro. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  4. 1 2 Stevens, Anise. "Abel Alejandre Looks at Middle-age from a Wry Perspective in Abandoned Superhero". lifeinla.com. Life IN LA. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  5. Mirror Staff. "Expo Line Art". smmirror.com. Santa Monica Mirror. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  6. Mizota, Sharon. "The truth is out there. Or is it? Conspiracies and secrets in the art of Abel Alejandre". latimes.com. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  7. Merino, Amelia. "Sneak peek into fabrication process for artwork at future Westwood/Rancho Park Station". http://thesource.metro.net. Metro. Retrieved 14 July 2016. External link in |website= (help)
  8. Merchant, Diana. "La Casa de La T'a Tina: Espacio alternativo de Arte y Mœsica". sietediasbc.com. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
  9. Kerwin, Barbara (2015). Drawing from the Inside Out: Projects for Beginning through Advanced Drawing (1st ed.). ATS Art Textbook Society. p. 123. ISBN 0996272704.

External links

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