William Van Metter (Hyperallergic) examines the work of Esaí Alfredo. He writes, “The 27-year-old Puerto Rican artist blends fantasy and reality with a heavy dose of queer romance. Can he repeat his Miami Art Basel triumph at the Armory Show?”
It was a sweltering mid-morning in Miami last month, and Esaí Alfredo was surrounded by his new series of queer nightscape fantasias. The oil paintings, redolent of romance and longing, are crammed with a multitude of what the 27-year-old artist is geeked on: ’70s sci-fi movie storyboards and pulp novel covers, The Wizard of Oz, horror films, TV adventure shows. The list goes on and on.
“I would describe it as ‘magical realism,’” he said of his artwork. “It’s all set in real life, but there’s fantastical elements.”
Alfredo was at his gallery, Spinello Projects, in the Allapattah district. The series, “Roads to the Nocturnal World,” was staged like an exhibition in an upstairs gallery but it was hung so it could be photographed for its next stop. With his solo booth at this week’s Armory Show, chances are Alfredo will echo the success he garnered at 2023’s Art Basel Miami Beach.
Last year, Spinello Projects devoted its booth to Alfredo for his debut art fair. “I never have any confidence,” Alfredo said. “I knew I wasn’t gonna sell anything.” The entire booth sold out within the first hour of the VIP preview. Alfredo’s indigo-hued visions balanced intimacy with fantasy, and a clear queer narrative. They stood out and struck a nerve with collectors eager to discover the next gay figurative painter with Louis Fratino-crossover potential. But Alfredo will have to narrow down the new paintings, many large scale, for his New York outing: he can bring only six to Armory.
One subject that repeatedly appears in the works bears striking similarities to the diminutive artist himself. The eerie standout, The Crimson Path (2024), resembles a scene from another planet and depicts its protagonist standing on a butte (wearing basically the same outfit Alfredo is wearing when we speak), gazing out at a pulsating neon river. I ask if it’s his avatar. “It’s me,” Alfredo said hesitatingly, “but it’s me playing a character. You know, it’s me, but it’s not.”
Alfredo specializes in conjuring scenes that combine film stills for Hollywood blockbusters (recast with young, queer Latinx players) and imagined films with intimate slices of life. In The Blast Behind the Antenna (2023), two young men are captured mid-embrace in the twilight. It’s unclear if they’re in the midst of an alien invasion or just technical difficulties. What looks like a green laser is piercing a cloud in the background. The duo reappears in The Kiss Before the Light (2024), their lips just about to touch. Did they sneak out for a hookup or are they saying goodbye to civilization? It’s this mystery that’s part of the majesty of Alfredo’s work.
The artist hails from the tiny town of Yabucoa in Puerto Rico; it is surrounded by hills on three sides, and the other faces the sea. “There’s always a horizon line in my paintings,” Alfredo said. Yabucoa’s enchanting scenic locales often factor into his work when he’s not inventing other worlds entirely. Alfredo moved to Miami full-time in 2023. [. . .]
For full article, see https://news.artnet.com/art-world/twilight-sci-fi-queer-fantasias-esai-alfredo-2529111
Also see https://esaialfredo.com/
[Shown above: 1) The artist Esaí Alfredo stands in front of his painting La Canción / The Song. Photo: Elliot & Erick Jiménez. 2) “El Cometa Esmeralda” (The Emerald Comet).]
William Van Metter (Hyperallergic) examines the work of Esaí Alfredo. He writes, “The 27-year-old Puerto Rican artist blends fantasy and reality with a heavy dose of queer romance. Can he repeat his Miami Art Basel triumph at the Armory Show?” It was a sweltering mid-morning in Miami last month, and Esaí Alfredo was surrounded by
