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| Mujer Morena |
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| Madness |
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| Morales Gallery Hoboken, NJ |
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| Alex Morales and I |
Morales’s work focuses on personal experiences, passions, and intimate relationships.
Each one of his masterpieces is devoted to a significant experience, time period, or person in his life. During our personal interview he stated, “of course, all of my artwork has meaning to it. Each piece means something important that I hold dear to my heart, if it didn’t I would just be making s**t” (Morales, 2018). His exhibition includes several themes including passion, family, addiction, and inspirations of other great artists. Morales’ work explores and questions identity, culture, and realism. National identity, self-portraiture, three dimensional art, and unique mediums are also themes he explores. The different themes of his exhibition portray devotion to detail, form, and structure through creating a sculpture from a tree trunk and twenty feet long murals.
Identity is defined as the values, behavior, characteristics that categorize and conform an individual. Identity and self are addressed in pieces throughout his thirty year career of constructing murals, paintings, and mosaics amongst other projects. The perception, expression, and realism used in his work define the personality of his art. Beginning his artistic career at the young age of fourteen in his native country of Uruguay he demonstrated, “[the] desire to be self-made, to have control over one’s life and be free are out vanities of will but the everyday expectations of the modern-individual” (Finkelstein, 132). His art has significantly impacted contemporary Latin America, which American society often neglects their wide cultural differences and contributions to art. As a national skilled artist, his traditional form creates work without the use of technology; hands and inspiration are his main tools. Some paintings more vivid than real life include the favorite red rose of an ex-lover and Uruguay’s national flower. Morales’ cultural background, heritage, sex, and natural born talent are significant factors in the creation of his image.
Self, perception, and identity are the ways an individual views themself according to the world around them. Morales knew form a young age that art was a talent he had been born with. During his high school years he was able to experiment, practice, and establish the foundation of his career. The self “[is] a trope, a fiction, a manner of speaking, a pattern of habits that needed to be maintained and kept in the same way that the body needs to be groomed and shaped”(Finkelstein,pg.106). He portrayed and introduced himself as an artist while he expanded his art through publicity and advertising, by painting large murals on walls or buildings to captivate viewers. Painting murals inspired him to continue to study art, and master a new talent for construction. He began to passionately dedicate his time to public art, rather than painting while living in Buenos Aires for several years. After being contracted in Uruguay again, he began to study graphic design which influenced several of his projects including photography, modeling, and illustrating. Morales was able to switch professions within the artistic field and master each category of art.
After a short time of focusing on graphic design, he became interested in decorating and painting fine art. During this time Morales traveled through his native country of Uruguay where several of his most popular masterpieces were created. Some of his most notable works include portraits of an ex-lover who desired to remain unnamed. He drew two of her, the first one just included shoulders and above named Mujer Morena, the second Sintesis de Mujer showed her breasts and an intriguing smirk as he perceived her. The beautiful portrait illustrates a woman of darker complexion with her eyes closed, a serene and peaceful expression observed in her features. The painting grasped my attention the most because it exemplified natural beauty through her Bantu knots and natural skin. The background consisted of the sun including the sky in tones of yellow, blue orange, gold, and brown. Tranquility in her expression revealed her calm nature and wondering sense of being. After asking me to review and analyze the painting for a short amount of time, he began to confess the story behind it.
She had been a passionate lover during his travels around Uruguay, leaving forbidden love and unspoken emotions as he left his artistic mark in every city. Their relationship began at one of his galleries, where her beauty captivated his attention pushing him to approach her. Comparing her skin to deep chocolate and her scent to a rose, he asked to meet again and she agreed. Their first few dates were in public she loved the theatre, but it was time to move forward and soon they were dining in his apartment together. As mature adults, she confessed the complicated and difficult marriage that had been consuming her. He understood her situation, having previously been deeply romantically involved, but that was not all she confessed through dinner.
Nervous to explain what was underneath her shirt, she felt pressured to confess since it would soon be revealed regardless. Cancer had taken both of her breasts, but she had defeated the disease and although they appeared to be on her chest they were false, including her nipples. After the confession she felt relieved, his artistic persona was inspired and requested to see them at once. Feeling comfortable and trusting, she showed him. Morales confessed that although they were different, it was the most astonishing piece he had laid eyes on. Automatically he knew that she would be the next model to his piece, because to him she was art. Their relationship was not meant to last due to the circumstances of her married status, but the time spent with her enlightened his artistic identity. Their relationship ended unexpectedly and without notice five months after, but the portrait holds the beautiful identity of this woman. Morales symbolized this inspiring story through form, colors, and traditional concepts. His emotions, feelings, and ideas were expressed through the realism in this painting. This encounter did not have romantic or expected results. She was able to fight her disease, but it also brought her physical consequences that will affect her personal identity and self-confidence.
Another one of his captivating pieces is the portrait Madness, which depicts Morales’ interpretation of addiction, insanity, and the contemporary view on drug abuse. Addiction is a disease that can take over the mind, body, and soul, but it has become a popular topic in society. Often, addicts are perceived as weak minded, ill, or as a lost cause. Morales does not agree with the stereotypical perception, he believes that it is a preventable and treatable chronic illness. Unfortunately not everyone is born into a stable family, social life, or the sufficient guidance to follow a correct path. Morales expressed feeling lost at certain points in his art, which inspired him to move into different art fields throughout his career. The man he illustrated in this piece with torn clothes, lost eyes, holding liquor, being injected into the veins by others, and chased by death did not have a positive home, childhood, and support. This piece was inspired by someone he briefly met upon his arrival to the United States and settlement in New York City. The purpose was to teach, stimulate emotions, and bring awareness of this delicate and serious issue in our country. This sense of madness is found in subway stations, on street corners, and even highways. Morales expressed not having experienced such homelessness, addiction, or reality of mental illness until moving to the United States.
Recovering from heroin abuse is a difficult process; an individual must attempt to fix their fractured self-identity. Drugs can cause the loss of valued identity in individuals who are seeking to find refuge, comfort, and satisfaction through addiction. The identity of a mentally ill person is not accepted in society, and ideas of others positively or negatively influence recovery process. Morales used art to symbolize social isolation, peer pressure from others, and the feeling of not being able to escape near death experiences with every dosage of drugs. Interpersonal conflict, social relationships, and social identities are pathways to substance abuse that are characterized through the helpless look as a focus in this piece. Self-identification with social groups, influence from the world, and personal choices are all foundations of behavior. Labeling the self as a drug addict, smoker, or drinker significantly impacts the way a person perceives them self and how the world sees them.
Alex Morales has the artistic ability to use realism in his art using different techniques such as sculptures, murals, mosaics, and even videos to show his work. He is able to include his self-identity, personality, and character in his work without containing any actual images of himself. The creative use of media, contemporary topics, and modern art depict his traditional style as an artist. Social norms, dark truths, and the depiction of hardships regular members of society experience are examined in his work. Drug abuse, cancer, unconformity, homelessness, and personal experiences are themes he uses in his pieces to represent self-identity, social issues, and self-portraiture. Morales’ gallery expressed stories close to his heart, deep symbolism behind his techniques, and a part of his soul as an artist.
References
“Explore Themes.” The Art Institute of Chicago,
“Identity.” The American Experience in the Classroom, Smithsonian Art Museum, americanexperience.si.edu/themes/identity/.
“MoMA Learning.” MoMA | Investigating Identity, 2018,
Links
http://alexmoralesatelierandartgallery.business.site/
http://www.ajmorales.com/en_paintings.html
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