Nelson Alvarez

http://www.nelsonarte.com/news-and-events/

“The biggest mistake people have about art is that they think that art is about technique, but art, more than anything else, is about ideas.” - Nelson Alvarez

Written by Rob Looby,

Ashley Bacchus,

& Stephanie Calixto

About the Artist

Nelson Alvarez is an artist, educator and curator at his studio in Woodlawn Heights, the Bronx. Born in Havana Cuba in 1966, Alvarez immigrated to the United States, touching down in New York City in 2003. Currently he holds a bachelor’s in fine arts at Kean University and an MFA in painting at Lehman College at CUNY, New York. One of the many things that stood out about Alvarez was his kind heart and genuine excitement when discussing his motivations and inspirations for his works, as well as his dedication to putting his message before profit. During this interview, we saw glimpses of the Nelson Alvarez that participates in his community and puts emphasis on important matters such as environmental strife in The United States and Cuba, and the perspectives that change the way we see art and the world.

We spoke to Mr. Alvarez via Zoom. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

https://neolatinocollective.com/nelson-a

Website / Instagram / Facebook

How did you come to join the Neo-Latino Collective?

Before I joined the Neo-Latino collective I was actually working with Raúl Villarreal on a different project called “We Are You.” We worked together on this project for a long time and built a strong bond which led to him inviting me to become a part of the Neo-Latino Collective. During this time he gave me a lot of valuable feedback on my work, mentored me, and also instructed me on how to go about getting my Masters in Fine Arts.

How does your work fit the group's objectives?

I think my work fits into the group’s objectives because while we have a very diverse group of artists, we all share a singular common interest. At the Neo-Latino Collective, we focus on projects that have purpose, empower education, and simultaneously enforce the presence of Latino Art in America.

Can you tell me about any artistic influences you might have? Specific artists? Have they changed over time?

The people and things that influence me are constantly changing depending on where my direction is going at the time and where I am. I love drawing and working with lines and I emphasize a lot on that in my art so I tend to look towards artists who work with drawing a lot as well. My current influence would have to be Alexis Rockman who is an American landscape painter. He does a lot of larger scale paintings and I’m currently planning on working on a project that is much larger scale than I’m used to.

I’ve also been influenced a lot by my professors at Kean and a number of them have had a big impact on me. Neil Tetkowski was the DIrector of University Galleries at the time and I looked at a lot of his work while I was working in ceramics. Joe Jochnowitz was another professor at Kean who influenced me a lot in drawing specifically.

Lastly, since my origins are Cuban I look to Cuban art a lot for reference. While I could try to pick a painter who is my favorite, it’s hard because the list is infinite. I mostly look at artistic influence based on where my direction is going, I have no single influence on my work.

Has your geographic location played an influence on your artwork? In your artist statement you said “I have an interest in creating work from an ecological environmental perspective resulting from my early environmental and social-activism in my native Cuba.” Does your work still reflect this or do you also get inspiration from your current environment?

While it may not always look that way, my work is a reflection of what I believe in. My current chalkboard work, for example, focuses a lot on the point of view and the contradiction between natural life and the phenomenon of industrialization. I have an interest in how these things change and I believe the problem with the environment is how we see the planet. We see it as something separate from us and we don’t see how we interact with it. But we are a part of the planet, we are not the owner of it. I’m trying to contradict how we act and how we see this view in my work. I also include landscapes in my work which are a platform in which you have to be integrated, it’s an ecological point of view.

I have also been following Winona La Duke, an American environmentalist who believes in the philosophy of defending the environment. I’m personally relatively new to environmental activism, but this is because I am now protected. Being that I am from Cuba my family wasn’t exactly involved in politics, they were on the other side, they lost when the revolution happened and my mother didn’t want me to get in trouble or investigated by the government. This is why she enrolled me in a recycling program called Click Patrol which went door to door giving tips on how to conserve energy and develop the country. This program not only kept me out of trouble but it also educated me and helped me become who I am today. It made me more aware of the environment and the problems we create. Today, I use this information to create art, start conversations, and ask questions about the decisions we make about our environment.

Has the coronavirus given you any new ideas or inspiration to portray?

The COVID situation has been a unique opportunity for me because I’ve been teaching at home and all of this free time has inspired me to explore art in a new way. Since masks have become so relevant in today’s world I decided to make my own and even though they’re different from my usual work they still had industrial qualities. I exhibited them for the first time a few months ago at the ChaShaMa exhibit. These masks were a totally new experience for me. I used a different approach that was more technical, which focused on a technique to create contrast and balance, on an object that is industrial, even though I used cardboard which is more natural. My usual approach is done through research which is more formal.

I learned a more formal approach to art while I was working toward my MFA. I was working with Danielle Tegeder at Lehman College who was an excellent professor that showed me how to work as an artist and give a scientific approach to my work. She stressed the importance of the research behind your work and I worked a lot on that concept. For my MFA thesis, I chose to work on a polemic problem in the environment and use my artistic skills and techniques to create an image that reflected that problem.

On my website you will see this painting called BR-364T– a land without people for people without land. This was a slogan used by the Brazilian Government to invade the amazon and degrade it to what it is today. This painting took a lot of research to create. So the approach used for the mask project was very different from research and painting, which is a more formal approach. And it’s not that I abandoned that practice but some ideas need a different approach and I’ve learned that as an artist.

Does your work speak to the current social and or political issues?

Yes, I think my work brings awareness to the environment, which I believe is very political. I am also politically involved in my life and in what I do as an art educator in Newark. I serve a community that needs me, and I am committed to devoting my time and serving them because I have a connection to the people and students. I could easily teach where I live in New York, but I prefer to teach in Newark. My art and teaching are connected, what happens in my studio is what I bring to the classroom.

https://neolatinocollective.com/nelson-alvarez

What do you want your audience to feel or think after looking at your art?

I would like my audience to question the statement I am trying to make, and think about it. This is the biggest reason why it has been difficult for me to sell my art or be a commercial artist. It’s hard art to sell and I don’t have the intention of pushing it too hard because I want to work for the public and not for people to buy my art. This is a hard decision to make as an artist, and it’s not that I don’t want my art to sell, but I have something to say and I expect my audience to feel like they can look at my art and question the meaning behind it. I want them to ask why and what is this image telling me? What is BR-364? I want them to go home and research and see that the meaning behind my art is real and important. I want them to leave my art with a question.

How has your style changed over the years?

To start, I was somebody who did ceramics because I found it fun and also because my girlfriend was an artist. With time though and curiosity, I started to understand the role that art played in my life and the transformation in my work has been part of that.

Sometimes I feel that I have too many things pending because there are always ideas rolling. I always keep a sketchbook and pens with me and this is how I keep my ideas going. When everyone else is in the waiting room reading a magazine, I am drawing. If I need a break from my studio, I have a separate sketchbook that I work with and use my leftover paints from a palette to create new ideas. Part of my practice is to create ideas and the biggest mistake people have about art is that they think that art is about technique, but art, more than anything else, is about ideas. If you have great skill that’s good for you, but you better find the ideas because people with little skill, but with good ideas go far, and if you can combine both, then you're on the right track. I try to push myself out of my comfort zone and I’ve learned that through practice. Right now, I’m experimenting a lot with lines and before I worked a lot with color. Just changing the materials you use can bring you somewhere else. Every idea has a different approach so you have to move with that wave.

What is the best piece of advice you can give to future artists/creatives?

Don’t Stop Working – it’s very difficult to work every day and you have to challenge yourself to do that. People say they don’t have the space, time, materials, funding, exhibitions, and people wait for big chunks of time. You must take every minute, hour, afternoon, late night and use that time and incorporate materials that you aren’t used to using (cardboards, pens, cameras, anything). Keep experimenting and don’t stop working

We found your work quite intriguing and we wanted to know a little bit more about some of your pieces.

https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10223952515462059/?d=n

Piece 1: Ink on Paper

This was part of a series with watercolor, and ink. Which was a transition piece that took me from working in black and white, to color. It was very experimental. I have a lot of family in Florida, and while visiting them I visited the everglades. I noticed the trees and vegetation there had a very unique way of growing that is totally different from the plants here in the north. This piece came from looking at those places and using a combination of watercolor and ink. First, I completely wet the paper, and then I took a Chinese watercolor brush with watercolor, and almost accidentally moved the brush around to create big areas of color, let it flow, and because the paper is wet it created this. After it dried, I went back and filled the space with lines that disrupt the space, and create movement that reflects a lot of the landscape you see there.

https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10224543117266735/?d=n

Piece 2: Masks

As I explained earlier, this was an experimental process for me. I got inspired by the relevance of masks in today's world and decided to make my own. I was also able to use a more technical approach to creating it as opposed to the more formal research based approach. There was a little bit of construction involved, as well as drawing. I thought about the geometric space, the function and opposition of the lines, and I built on top of that to give it an industrial kind of character. The eye holes are a little bit of a mystery in the piece. One has one hole, the other has two, and another has a hole but the side is open for the other eye to see. This again is a reflection on point of view, and how we see the planet and how we respond to it.

https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10224358669815664/?d=n

Piece 3: Chalkboards

This is an idea that is moving from one material to another. At first I started this idea with a watercolor and ink method as we spoke about for Ink on Paper. I wanted to experiment with new materials, so I used chalkboards to create a different point of view of the landscape and inverted the colors that you saw on the Ink on Paper piece. This idea, however, is going to move again to a different material. I have ordered 10 extra large canvases that I plan to hang on the wall and then paint. These will have more elements that can represent or suggest industrialization combined with the current elements, so we will see what happens. This one idea has gone through multiple mediums, it’s like an orange, you keep trying to squeeze as much as you can from it experimenting in different ways.

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References

Alvarez, Nelson. BR-364T–a land without people for people without land. 2020, Neo-Latino Collective. Neo-Latino Collective, https://neolatinocollective.com/nelson-alvarez. Accessed 29 April 2021.

Alvarez, Nelson. Color chalk on chalkboard. Facebook, 5 February 2021, https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10224358669815664/?d=n. Accessed 29 April 2021.

Alvarez, Nelson. Image of Nelson. Nelson Art Studio, Nelson Alvarez, http://www.nelsonarte.com/news-and-events/. Accessed 29 April 2021.

Alvarez, Nelson. Ink on paper. Facebook, 16 December 2020, https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10223952515462059/?d=n. Accessed 29 April 2021.

Alvarez, Nelson. Masks ready for drop off. Facebook, 3 March 2021, https://www.facebook.com/1272491764/posts/10224543117266735/?d=n. Accessed 29 April 2021.

Alvarez, Nelson - Neo-Latino Collective.” Neo, neolatinocollective.com/nelson-alvarez.

José Rodeiro

The Biggest Problem that Confronts Us Is the Fact that a High Percentage of Contemporary Imagery has Lost its Awareness of the Poetic

By: Samantha Jezowicz, Chelsea Doyle, and Angela Figueroa

Jose Rodeiro is an award-winning painter. He was born February 5th and raised in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida by his parents, Dr. José Antonio Rodeiro and Mrs. Olga Pérez Rodeiro. During his career, he lived and worked in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and northern New Jersey for over twenty-five years and he has obtained major art fellowships from: the National Endowment for the Arts, completed in Barcelona (1986-87); The Fulbright Scholars’ Program, CIES, completed in Managua Nicaragua (1995); The Institute for International Education, Oscar B. Cintas Foundation (1982); Inter-American-Development Bank, BID (1991); as well as other grants. Rodeiro holds a Ph.D. from the College of Fine Arts in Ohio, a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute, and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Tampa, and has held official artist-residencies in Maryland and Florida and was a professor in the Art Department at New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ. He is an internationally published author and has published critiques and historical studies, such as “An Iconological Critique of Duda Penteado’s We Are You,” found at

http://www.gerolatino.org/duda_essay.html. Dr. Rodeiro answered our questions via email.

1. Can you tell me about any influences you had with specific artists? Have they ever changed over time?

As a young child, the first paintings that I paid attention to were created by three French women artists: Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Marie-Denise Villers, and Rosa Bonheur. These works were printed-on-canvas reproductions purchased by my mother and hung by my father on the walls of my family’s home in Ybor City. As a young child, I did not know that these images were by women and neither did my parents know that; they simply bought & hung these three artists’ works because they liked them. Yet, as a result, my whole artistic life derives from seeing as a toddler, painting by three female painters: Vigée Le Brun, Villers, and Bonheur.

"Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun - Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat" by irinaraquel

is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Once I began studying art history, during my teenage years, I realized that my three favorite painters were Diego Velazquez, Francisco Goya, and Édouard Manet. As an adult, I admire flexible artists like Gerhard Richter, Milton Glaser, or Picasso, who (like me) simultaneously work in several styles concurrently, in which the choice of subject-matter determines the style. For me, specifically, thematic subjects include “cats,” “people,” “landscapes,” “bodegones” (“still-life images”), mermaids, and wild-horses. Each subject or theme provokes a specific stylistic preference. Yet, to answer, your question, I still maintain my same (constant and unsullied) youthful preferences, e.g., Rosa Bonheur’s “Horse Fair” is still informs my current horse imagery; Goya effects my dicey forays “into” “Duende Art,” (https://www.duendeart.org/) and, despite everything, Velazquez remains my favorite old master.Because art exists beyond time (free of time), my aesthetic sources & influences remain the same as when I was a child. Both to do, imagine, and create, art requires faithfulness, endurance, and constancy.

"Rosa Bonheur: 'The Horse Fair'" by euthman is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

2. What do you think is your responsibility as an artist?

Below in #5, I furnish a more political answer (READ BELOW in Question 5)... But, however, beyond mere politics, what all art (and concomitantly every real artist (including me)) has eternally striven for is: “the unity in diversity of all things.” For anyone blessed with prolific creative artistic gifts, Art is (for such beings) the enigmatic unifying principle of the cosmic universe. Through art, the tiniest basic molecule, a tiny dot, a drop of pigment can expand into Pollock’s “Number 1 (Lavender Mist),” because (for humanity and for artists), Art is mankind’s secret sanctuary: a portal into divinity and immortality, allowing as William Blake said in “The Auguries of Innocence:” “To see a World in a Grain of Sand. And a Heaven in a Wild Flower. Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand. And Eternity in an hour.” For artists and their appreciators, works of art (the very intent and process of artistic creation) both vent and encourage Henri Bergson’s creative eruptions, which can endure forever, e.g. Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus,” any Van Gogh sunflower painting, or any other visual image marked with eternal perfection, including imagery within poems by visual poets, i.e., Keats, Poe, Lorca, etc. The proof of this is Apelles’s grand manner art, because although unseen for centuries, his images remain (for many) the greatest artworks ever created, because, like all artists, Apelles’s art continues cosmically assisting, perpetuating, and reinforcing all Creation’s unending creativity (a la Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s idea that any work of art is always a divine re-alliance with God, re-affording the chance to work alongside Him instantly (once again) as an assistant “helping” Him (by God’s grace) during the first seven days of Creation). Paul Cezanne had it right when he counselled Émile Bernard in a 1904 letter, “. . . paint. Therein, lies salvation.”

Fresco from Pompei, Casa di Venus, 1st century AD. Dug out in 1960. It is supposed that this fresco could be the Roman copy of famous portrait of Campaspe, mistress of Alexander the Great. This mural from Pompeii is believed to be based on Apelles' Venus Anadyomene, brought to Rome by Augustus. archive of Stephen Haynes: http://www.shaynes.com/Photos/Italy_Spring_2004/CRW_8457.htm

3. Has geographic location played an influence on your artwork, specifically the inspiration you found when you went to Nicaragua?

Yes, the volcanic landscape of Nicaragua has circuitously manifested itself into my work. Nicaragua has had the greatest impact on my landscape painting. Generally, like in Michelangelo’s paintings, for me, landscapes function simply as a mere background; as a setting (a scenario). However, Nicaraguan volcanoes transfixed the landscape into a form of figural subject matter.

José Rodeiro Lake Managua (versions 3,), oil-on-linen, 9 ½” x 11,” 1995 (Collection of the artist). Rodeiro-art.com

4. What do you want your audience to feel or think after looking at your art?

I believe that great art always expresses creative inspiration(s), echoing Henrí Bergson’s concept of primal élan vital with its veritable Primordialism (or Neo-Shamanism). My art results from a peculiar artistic morphogenesis wherein enigmatic forgotten shapes spring from what Dr. Nicomedes Suarez-Arauz calls “Amnesis artistic lacunae,” wherein mental images house a lost immanent labyrinthic Amnesis mental cave whose ‘cave-walls’ are furtively covered (or decked) with nearly-vanished animistic, shamanic, elemental or atavistic images. These Amnesis “lost objects” are artistically transposed from my immanent mind into “the viewer’s” sensate transcendental realm by flatly applying an array of sublime chromatic hues (burnt violets, icy blues, rosy pinks, and burnt orange) as distinct organic or abstract morphogenic shapes that are painted with pigments on a flat surface, transmitting my mind’s innate individual intuitive vision(s) into numerous visible shapes, forms, and spaces ‒ resulting in an enigmatic musical and poetic push/pull medley of metaphors, symbols, signs, and surfaces.

5. As one of the founding members of the Neo-Latino Collective, what do you believe the objectives are and how does your work fit into it?

Neo-Latino Collective is a group of working artists who came together in 2003 to collaborate, curate, and create space for the Latinx voice in the arts today. Based in New Jersey but with a community branching across the United States and beyond, the group has produced events and exhibitions in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. In a country where people and culture are constantly in flux and moving towards a Latinx-integrated/majority/infused future, Neo-Latino believes that the presence and voice of Latinx in the arts is critical and constant. From its founding in 2003, when the late-Raúl Villarreal (1964 - 2019) named the cohort: “The Neo-Latinos;” the group continues to be the oldest coast-to-coast Latinx art movement of the 21st Century, assembling a Pan-Latinx transcultural amalgam of visual artists,

Out on the town, 2007, Oil on linen, 51” x 31”

The Cintas Foundation Collection, Miami Dade County Museum of Art & Design.(https://www.ragazine.cc/jose-rodeiro-artist-interview/)

whose ancestral identities can be traced to over a dozen Latin-nations, myriad ethnicities, and cultures. Over the years, through numerous artistic collaborations, kindling a host of concomitant curated exhibitions, Neo-Latinx artists aspire to create viable spaces for Latinx visual art to flourish, be seen, and accepted. Headquartered in New Jersey’s metropolitan area, but with an active community branching across the United States and beyond, the group has produced events and exhibitions in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York. And, during a time, when people and culture are constantly in flux, by dynamically encompassing Pan-Latinx transcultural awareness, greater cultural synthesis, ethnic-fusion, and a host of aesthetic cultural admixtures, Neo-Latinoism endeavors to achieve greater artistic inclusivity, via an artistic trajectory aimed at socio-cultural aesthetic ideals (i.e., Justice, Equality, and Freedom); while striving to forge an artistic community and an aesthetic movement linked by Pan-Latinx cultural solidarity. In the visual arts, Neo-Latinoism advances and manifests fluid and conditional aspects of ethno-cultural, as well as national identity formation. Additionally, the movement seeks a cultural amalgam characterized by transcultural fertilization, artistic evolution, and by the sedimentary “visual” fusion of diverse cultural symbols and elements. Thus, through the lens of visual culture, Neo-Latinos strive in their art to present a more complex, prismatic vision of Latinx identity, subjectivity and consciousness.

6. What is the best piece of advice you can give to future artists and

other creatives?

As visual artists, the biggest problem that confronts us is the fact that a high percentage of contemporary imagery has, for the most part, lost its awareness of the poetic. Thus, far too many artists (at this time) produce art as if it were only a technical mechanical production and not creativity. We owe this failure to five historic and art historic factors: 1.) the rise of digital technology, which exalted machine-made ‘screen-based’ media, animation, pictures, visual effects, displays, self-seeking selfies and other forms of hyper-reality favoring these mechanized fads over visionary ‘deep-image’ visual poesy. On every level, the digital revolution damaged and diluted humanity’s capacity for true and untrammeled verbal and visual-verbal communication, as well as harming fine arts’ inherent predilection for individual visionary imaginative fabulations, as well as generally eradicating popular awareness of immanent linguistic imagery, except for the habitual use of Pierre Reverdy and André Breton’s theory of discordant imagery in most television advertising, as well as most print advertising. 2.) Sadly, the mid-1970s’ worldwide demise of proper liberal arts education stultified humanity’s interest in poetic language, which negatively affected literacy. As the 21st Century unfolded, 3.) literature and visual art (even music) contended with the eruption of relentless social-media, text-messaging, tweeting and other digital forms of communication that further reduced, trivialized, and minimized verbal and visual communication, 4.) changing language (both verbal and visual) into lugubrious forms of Habermasean Neo-neoMarxist ‘communicative behavior,’ replete with ‘ideal speech communities,’ exploiting snappy acronyms, computer jargon, slang, emoticons, and idiomatic colloquialisms, condensing poetic syntax into glib ‘text-based’ slogans, tags, or pat catchphrases enveloped in favorite fonts, which placed mechanical design above both verbal and visual comprehension. By avoiding strong poetic and imaginative images, 5.) popular contemporary verbal and visual language, since 1970, nurtured increasing timidity (fear of others); glaring non-communication, ahistory, anti-imagination, dehumanization, violence for violence’s sake, and is, for the most part, less able to convey beauty, love, sublimity, feelings, emotions, or nous (thought-feelings). And, without its historic association with poetry, visual art has slid (throughout the early 21st Century) into a morass of “false Postmodernism,” consisting of entrenched hyper-neomodernism, inducing an anti-art malaise set on dehumanizing art by substituting paradoxes, irony, clever antics, and pranks as surrogates for art, affording merely a partial aesthetic that divulges only tiny “p-arts;” but, never the totality of art. From the 1970s onward, the elite within the contemporary art world (and its well-oiled institutions) clung to an array of anti-art dogma(s), which, over the last 40 years, encouraged the overuse of digital technology, almost identical to disgraced contemporary athletes, who abused steroids and growth hormones in order to synthetically enhance their talent. Thus, visual art became subservient to hyper-technology, and remained entrenched in eternal Neo-neoDada, Neo-neoconceptualism, as well as other 21st Century ironic styles, resembling and dissembling Duchampian/Beuysian/Kohian tongue-in-cheek antics, and pranks.

José Rodeiro. The Spirit of Cuba Favoring José Marti. oil-on-canvas, 2’ x 3.’ 1997. Rodeiro-art.com, accessed 5 May 2021.

Raul Villarreal Project

Edward Tengwall

Alec Duerr

Joanna M. Szpernoga

Raul Villarreal

Raul Villarreal was a Latin-American artist who drew heavily upon the pulls that he felt coming from two different sides of his life. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1964, Villarreal and his family moved to Union City, New Jersey when he was 7. He had over 15 years of experience as an artist and was featured in a number of exhibitions and collaborative projects. He has been credited for the creation of various art initiatives and shows, including Grupo-Neo-Latino, the Neo Latino: 21st Century Latino Art, and the Neo Latino: Critical Mass to name a few. Villarreal wanted to widen the array of art styles and viewpoints and worked to provide a space for artists who had come from a variety of backgrounds. He was THE driving force behind the creation of the Neo-Latino Collective.

http://www.raulvillarreal.com/page22.html

Ambos Mundos, oil on linen. n.d. https://neolatinocollective.com/raul-villarreal

Villareal’s artistic viewpoint came from his memories of living and growing up in Cuba, Spain, and the United States. He liked to play with the assimilation of cultures, specifically the relationship between American and Latino culture, using mass media motifs and pop culture iconography. His work was incredibly spiritual and surreal, painting in the style of Duende, a specific aesthetic that derives from Federico Garcia-Lorca’s essay, Play and the Theory of the Duende.

The style leans into the theory of artists being inspired by memory and non-memory, forgetfulness and the attempts to remember these things. Villarreal wanted to use this style to apply his personal memories, photographs, and personal iconography to layer multiple realities, time references, and existence. He created pieces that tell the story of an artist who lives in two different realities at the same time, using cultures and images to represent that. A piece can include anything ranging from surreal landscapes, self portraits, pop-culture imagery, and social commentary, either separate, or all together in one.

Superman, Where Are You Now? n.d. Oil on canvas. https://neolatinocollective.com/raul-villarreal

In July of 2019, Raul Villarreal died unexpectedly at the age of 55. Though we grieve the loss of this talent, our group was fortunate enough to gain the opportunity to interview Ricardo Fonseca, a close friend of Villarreal’s. Taking the time to talk to him, we managed to gain a glimpse into the inner workings of Villarreal’s artistic process. Mr. Fonseca answered our questions via email.

Q: How did Mr. Villarreal come to join the Neo-Collective? How did his work fit into his own objectives?

A: Raúl Villarreal didn’t join the Neo-Latino Collective — he FOUNDED it, and he did so while pursuing his master’s degree in Fine Arts (MFA) at New Jersey City University (NJCU). Dr. José Rodeiro whom I’ve sent you contact info on, would know specific dates and the development process of conceptualizing such a group through the lenses of Raúl — this, because Dr. Rodeiro was Raúl’s mentor and then became his close friend.

Q: Was Mr. Villarreal’s artistic style influenced by any specific artists?

A: All artists, dead and living, are most certainly influenced by specific artists. I don’t know specifically what artists Raúl appreciated — this would be a question better suited for Dr. Rodeiro (he would know, for sure), however, I do know that Raúl was also a graphic designer by trade, not just an artist, and this fusion of artist and graphic designer is evident in his artwork because in my view his paintings look like they were “designed” first, and then painted. Raúl was also fond of the Duende Art movement and Dr. Rodeiro can tell you more about that, since he has written extensively about Duende Art. Here is a link to Raúl’s Duende Art:

https://www.duendeart.org/raul-villarreal

Isla de Oshun, 2019. Oil on canvas. https://neolatinocollective.com/raul-villarreal

A: Did Mr. Villarreal’s geographic location play any sort of role or influence his own artwork?

A: Absolutely. Because Raúl was born in Cuba, then immigrated to Spain, and later to the United States, he always had a longing for his native Cuba. This is evident in his artwork with scenery of a tropical island, or painting tiny paintings in Cuban cigar boxes (look at his artwork on his website). Dr. Rodeiro can also provide you with more in-depth views on this question.

Q: Was Mr. Villarreal always trying to convey a certain message or messages within

his artwork?

A: All artists try to convey a message in their artwork, even if that message is one of nothingness, emptiness, or the void. But, for Raúl, at the core of his artwork were topics of identity, multiculturalism and transculturalism. Dr. Rodeiro can elaborate more on this question as well.

Q: Did Mr. Villarreal’s artwork always speak with the current social and political issues of the time?

A: Raúl’s more political artwork, however subtle on the surface, but quietly potent for the viewer that took the time to dissect, did have socio-political issues at hand. Hence if you look at the Neo-Latino Collective guiding principles below, one can see the social and the political in it and therefore, directly or indirectly, through its artists and their respective artworks:

1. Neo-Latinos value artistic inclusivity

2. Neo-Latinos cherish aspirational socio-cultural aesthetic ideals.

3. Neo-Latinos aspire toward the possibility of an artistic community and an aesthetic movement linked by Pan-Latino cultural solidarity.

4. Neo-Latinos conceptually acknowledge the fluid and conditional aspects of cultural and national identity formation.

5. Neo-Latinos seek a cultural amalgam, which is characterized by transcultural fertilization, artistic evolution, and the sedimentary “visual” fusion of diverse cultural symbols and elements.

6. Neo-Latinos strive to present a more complex, prismatic vision of Latino/a subjectivity and consciousness through the lens of visual culture.

Q: What did Mr. Villarreal want his audience to feel or think about after viewing his work?

A: Many of his artworks are perplexing and yearn for the viewer to contemplate what is being visually witnessed right before their eyes. Some feature a sense of multiple realities, time references, and existence. Dr. Rodeiro can elaborate more on this question.

Q: Did Mr. Villarreal’s artwork style change over the years?

A: Yes, absolutely. The artist whose artistic style does not change over the years is the artist who is already dead artistically — meaning, like everything else in life, an artist’s artwork must also evolve, or the artist is doing something very terribly wrong. The evolution of Raúl’s artwork can be much better explained chronologically by Dr. Rodeiro.

Q: Do you feel Mr. Villarreal had any responsibilities as an artist? Such as conveying a certain message or appearing a certain way to the public.

Yes, absolutely, and hence he founded the Neo-Latino Collective which I’ve listed the guiding principles above.

Q: Do you think if Mr. Villarreal was still here with us today, he would have a piece of advice to give to future artists/creatives? If so what do you believe it would be?

A: Raúl gave me much advice over the years regarding my artwork, my graphic design work, and my professional career in general. Mind you, I am 12 years younger than Raúl was, and so, I did look up to him for his artist wisdom and advice on matters related to my career. One of the things he would always tell me is to keep creating work… regardless of life’s chores and how busy life may get. Creating work (spending time at his studio), was important to him and he relished in his creations and the time he invested in them. Raúl was a mentor figure to me and I believe the above advice he gave to me, about keeping creating more work, would still be applicable to beginner and junior artists.

Landscape in Exile, oil on linen. n.d. http://www.raulvillarreal.com/page22.html

Villarreal was an artist who delivered an incredibly unique and interesting artistic viewpoint. Thanks to Ricardo Fonseca we were able to see just what it was that Villarreal was trying to tell his audience and what his art meant to him. We were all very lucky to have Fonseca here to answer our questions and we are incredibly grateful for his aid. To have this link into the mind of Villarreal’s beautiful and surreal style is a chance that we will not let go to waste.