Over the holidays we will be highlighting a number of members of Buffalo Society of Artists (BSA), so that you might support them by purchasing original works of art. Thanks to Paul Rybarczyk at BSA for helping me put these together. Visit the BSA website to learn more about the institution – one of the oldest continually operating arts organizations in the country. Next up on our list is artist Alejandro Gutierrez:
Alejandro Gutierrez is currently showing his “Sea[e]scapes” at Art Dialogue Gallery, One Linwood Avenue, as part of their Artful Gifts Exhibit.
In this series I attempt to visualize my concern over the decay of our oceans due to our own carelessness and neglect, as wells expressing the poignancy of the inherent beauty of accidents. Recently we have become all too aware of the fact that oil and water do not mix–the oil industry keeps telling us that the oil spilled in the oceans will just go away if enough surfactants are thrown in the mix. What these soap-like substances do is break down the oil that is floating and allows it to sink, where recovery and removal is virtually impossible. Here I re-create that same environmental tension by mixing oil and water-based enamels, and then seal it all under glossy UV resin.
The subject of the seascape lends itself to my continued exploration of paint drips and scrapes, and transcends the materials used for their creation, now shifting between my custom urethane base and enamels, and executed on canvas, linen, or board.
These works are a natural progression from the “Land[e]scape” series of (mostly) watercolors that I did in the early 90’s. Shortly thereafter I began to create my own paint formulas using pigments and water-based binders, allowing me to control the paint’s properties such as thickness, texture, flow, drying time, and inter-mixability, depending on whether I intend that particular batch to be used impasto (paint applied thickly) or in glazes (paint applied thinly, in layers).
Alejandro Gutiérrez was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1966, and in 1982 he arrived in Minnesota to finish high school. He moved to Fredonia in order to further his understanding of the recording process. There he began crafting audio-visual works, produced the internationally syndicated radio series “Playing It By Ear” (which was funded by the New York State Council on the Arts) and was inspired by Scottish painter John Hughson to explore painting abstractly using oil enamels in a large format.
In 1989 he moved to the Buffalo area with his wife to raise their daughter. Shortly thereafter he had a studio at the Buffalo Arts Studio, which allowed him to continue his exploration of the paint drip in a large format. He then began to earnestly dissect his main material-the paint. This brought him back to when he was six years old, when the magical alchemy began: he would scrounge around the basement garage of his apartment building for paints, oils and wood, and burn, scrape, mix and mangle whatever he could get his hands on… whether visual, sonic or textural. In 1994 he was invited to show his watercolors and acrylics, alongside that of his mentor John Hughson, at the In Western New York Show at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
His paintings have been featured in The Buffalo News‘ Gusto magazine and shown at the Echo Art Fair, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Castellani Art Museum, Art Dialogue Gallery, Glass Growers Gallery, Oxford Gallery, Buffalo Arts Studio, 464 Gallery, Carnegie Art Center and the Kenan Center.
More Greater Buffalo artists and artisans…
Paul Alico, John Sargent, Deborah Stewart, Pat Pendleton, Kristin Damstetter, Alana Adetola Fajemisin, Sarah and John Cozzemera, Rob Hopkins, Jennifer Seth-Cimini, Elisabeth Strong, Michael Mulley, Patricia Schwimmer, Mikel Doktor, Jerome Greenberg, Elizabeth Leader, Jacqueline Welch, Doreen DeBoth, Joe Cascio, Candace Masters, Iris Kirkwood, Lukia Costello, Michael Morgulis, Julie Leatherbarrow, Chris Liberti, Michael Mararian, Daniel Rodgers, Bruce Adams, Ken Payne, Christina Cooke, Elise Anne Brooks, Frank Cravotta, Jackie Albarella, Gary Melius, Melissa Campbell, Jeff Quigley, Nancy Moran, Vincent Alejandro, Patti Harris, Eileen Graetz, Rita Argen Auerbach