William Van Metter (Hypersensitivity) examines the work of Esai Alfredo, writing, “The 27-year-old Puerto Rican artist blends fantasy and reality with a generous helping of queer romance. Can he repeat his Miami Art Basel triumph at the Armory Show?”
On a sweltering Miami morning last month, Esai Alfredo was surrounded by his new series of strange nocturnal fantasies. The oil paintings, exuding romance and longing, are chock full of the 27-year-old artist’s obsessions: storyboards for ’70s sci-fi movies, the covers of pulp novels. The Wizard of Oz, Horror movies, TV adventure shows, the list goes on and on.
“I like to describe it as ‘magic realism,'” he said of his work. “It’s all set in reality, but it has fantastical elements.”
Alfredo was in the gallery. Spinello ProjectAllapattah neighborhood. The “Road to Night” series was on display like an exhibition in the second-floor gallery, but was on display for visitors to take photos of for their next visit. Armory ShowPerhaps Alfredo will replicate the success he achieved at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023.
Last year, Spinello Projects set up a booth at Alfredo’s first art fair. “I’m not very confident,” Alfredo says. I knew “I wasn’t planning on selling anything,” Alfredo said. Tickets for his booth were sold out within the first hour of the VIP preview. Alfredo’s indigo visions balance intimacy and fantasy with distinctly queer narratives. They stand out, striking a chord with collectors eager to discover the next gay figurative painter with the potential for crossover with Luis Fratino. But Alfredo must narrow down his new works, many of them large-scale, for a show in New York. He can bring just six pieces to the Armory.
A recurring subject in the work bears a striking resemblance to the diminutive artist himself. An eerie masterpiece. Crimson Pass (2024) is like a scene from another planet, depicting our protagonist standing on a hilltop (dressed essentially the same as the one Alfredo is wearing when he speaks), gazing at a pulsating neon river. I ask if that’s his avatar. “It’s me,” Alfredo says hesitantly. “But it’s me playing the character. It’s me, but it’s not me.”
Alfredo specializes in crafting scenes that combine stills from Hollywood blockbusters (reprised by young queer Latino actors) with fantasy films depicting slice-of-life personal stories. Explosion behind the antenna (2023) shows two young people embracing each other in the sunset. It’s unclear whether they are in the midst of an alien invasion or simply technical difficulties. Green laser-like objects pierce the clouds in the background. The couple reappear. Kiss in front of the light (2024), their lips are about to touch. Are they sneaking out to have sex, or are they saying goodbye to civilization? This mystery is part of the brilliance of Alfredo’s work.
The artist hails from Yabucoa, a small town in Puerto Rico that is surrounded by hills on three sides and faces the ocean on the remaining one. “There is always a horizon in my paintings,” says Alfredo. When he’s not creating entirely different worlds, Yabucoa’s mesmerizing landscapes often influence his work. Alfredo moved to Miami full-time in 2023. [. . .]
Read the full article below https://news.artnet.com/art-world/twilight-sci-fi-queer-fantasias-esai-alfredo-2529111
See also 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).]
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