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In his richly textured abstract assemblages constructed from organic materials, Demetrio Alfonso combines imagery and influences from a variety of sources, including Afro-Cuban culture, Mystical Catholicism, and Abstract Expressionism. Featuring archetypal crosses, hexagons, and circles, Alfonso's works are talismanic in nature, evoking mythical forces and shamanistic powers of healing, while exploring themes of decay and renewal, death and rebirth, and physical deterioration and spiritual transformation.
Born in the Canary Islands, Spain, Demetrio Alfonso was classically trained in painting at the San Alejandro Art School in Havana, Cuba. After emigrating to the United States in the 1970s, he furthered his studies at the School of Visual Arts and the Art Students League. Turning from traditional forms of painting, Alfonso began to incorporate found objects in his works, such as rusted nails and metals, decaying wood, broken sidewalks, and semi-precious stones, finding iconic power and beauty in a fusion of these elements. With their encrusted surfaces, embedded jewels, and found objects such as hinges and painted washers, many of Alfonso's works evoke the sumptuousness of medieval reliquary objects and seem imbued with ancient and universal symbolism.
Demetrio Alfonso has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in this country and abroad and is included in many private and public collections, including the Modern Art Museum, Shanghai, China; the Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai, China; and St. Augustine Church, Union City, New Jersey. |
