| CARLOS ALFONZO |
Born in Cuba in 1950, Carlos Alfonzo arrived as an exile in Miami
in 1980. His work was included in the historic 1987 exhibition,
Hispanic Art in the United States, and just before his tragic death
in 1991, was chosen for the Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York. In 1998, the Miami Art
Museum mounted a major retrospective, Triumph of the Spirit:
Carlos Alfonzo, A Survey, 1975-1991, which also traveled to the
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Alfonzo’s work is included in numerous public collections, including
the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington,
D.C., the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington
D.C., and the Miami Art Museum.
Alfonzo’s passionate and colorful art deals with the themes of
life, death, sexuality and martyrdom. His style is marked by a
gestural expressiveness that interweaves many cultural references,
including Afro-Cuban folklore, Catholicism, Tarot cards,
and the occult practice of Rosicrucianism. Images such as a dagger-
pierced tongue from the Cuban Santeria tradition signify violence,
martyrdom and human suffering, while the cross, a recurring
motif in his work, has mystical connotations, alluding to spiritual
balance as well as sacrifice. The eye evokes the pantheistic
consciousness he believed was spread throughout the natural
world. "I try through my visual language to suggest the presence
of mystical forces that surround us and are part of us," Alfonzo
said in an interview in 1988. "And my own personal feelings
guide me as an artist."
|
|
|