ART
interview by BILL POWERS
portrait by CAMERON MCCOOL
all artwork by ALEJANDRO CARDENAS, copyright the artist
perched on a rock looking at the sea or trapped inside four walls, all one needs is an exit door, or a morphological, metaphysical change of identity.
BILL POWERS — In one of your new paintings, there’s a figure standing on a veranda overlooking the water. Do you imagine that creature is on vacation?
ALEJANDRO CARDENAS — I see it as living in its own world, a parallel world to ours. It’s funny because I’ve always wanted to paint figuratively, but I never wanted to paint people. When you look at a painting of a person, you look at the person, as opposed to the entire painting. I wanted to skirt that impulse, so the figures and the environments are more integrated. I wanted there to be a harmony in the composition….