Interview with Alejandro Pasquale

Interview with Alejandro Pasquale

We recently curated an online group exhibition titled “Mind asleep, Body awake” and you can view it here. Alejandro Pasquale has always blown us away with his large-scale, surreal, and hyper-detailed work. We are honored to have as part of this show and Interview him as well!

What is your first memory of being creative? (Project, specific artwork, etc.)

When do you realize what you were making was art?

Do you have any official art training or are you self-taught?

What’s the process of creating like for you? Do you have to set the mood? What goes on when creating a new piece?

I work with sketches before moving on to canvas, so once I have the idea done, I develop it in the paint. I work all day in my studio from very early in the morning, I love working with sunlight! Each new piece feels like a step in this journey, since each piece represents part of my life.

Your work is super detailed, how do you know when you are done with work or does it always feel like something more could be done?

 Something else could always be done, for sure! but the paint is always finished when it is, I really don’t know when or if there is a final brushstroke … it just happen.

What made you want to paint more surreal subjects in the first place? You often paint a lot of plant life within your work as well, could you explain the reason why?

I know that the result could be seen as a kind of surrealism, but in the concept I prefer the term “magical realism”, as the German Franz Roh used to describe those paintings that showed an altered reality. The relation with nature and plants in my work, it has the intention and the need to constantly remind us that despite the fact that many times we overlook it, we are a horizontal part of a great network of living beings and minerals that inhabit this earth, that we ar part of this immense and magical nature.

What’s the meaning behind the work “Brief encounter with reality” featured in this show?

The process of creating that piece went through some very strong times of the year, in the middle of the process I had tendinitis in my right arm that forced me to spend two months without working, then my dog and partner for the last 17 years. died, and we were also beginning to go through strict quarantine in Argentina. All the chaos and news about COVID-19 made me think a lot about the place that death has in Western society, as well as during the course of our life, which mostly occupies fears and taboos, but is so present and even more real than life. .
Some time ago I have been reading writings of explorers of consciousness, and listening to some talks by philosophers about it and about their point of view on death and the act of dying.
“Brief encounter with reality” speaks of an anticipation of that act, a very brief but momentous act, it is about understanding it as part of life without making the judgment that it is good or bad. Just open yourself up to it lovingly and wisely, consider it not as a nightmare, but as one more step in the course of our spirit and accept it graciously, wishing it to be a good life and also a good death.

What’s something you hope viewers and collectors experience when viewing your works?

We are nature … that’s where we come from and here we go, let’s never forget it! Let us always be kind and respectful to her, it is the most sacred thing, it is everything.

Available Works