Bio + Essay

BIO

Alexis Duque is a NYC based artist born in Medellin, Colombia. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Antioquia, Medellin and has exhibited in numerous venues including: El Museo del Barrio, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Praxis International Gallery in NY; Schiltkamp Gallery at Clark University, Worcester, MA; Ogden Contemporary Arts, Ogden, UT; The Alden B. Dow Museum of Science and Art, Midland, MI; and Galleri Oxholm in Copenhagen, Denmark. Duque’s work has been featured in “Imagine Architecture: Artistic Visions of The Urban Realm” by Gestalten, WhiteHot Magazine, Beautiful Decay and New American Paintings among others.

The Dignity of People Every Day by Gabriel de Guzman, Director of Arts & Chief Curator at Wave Hill

Catalogue Essay for Alexis Duque: Los Dueños de Nada September 13 – October 26, 2024

Debuting in a solo exhibition at Taller Puertorriqueño, Alexis Duque’s recent painting series, Los Dueños de Nada (The Owners of Nothing), marks a shift in the artist’s practice. His previous work is characterized by highly detailed, surrealistic architectural landscapes, depicting shantytowns of precariously stacked houses set into the hillside. Born and raised in Medellín, Colombia, Duque portrayed the ramshackle environs of the impoverished communities who live on the edges of big cities in South America, like Bogotá or Medellín. Yet there was always an apparent contrast in his painted scenes. Duque did not cast a condescending glance at these neighborhoods. There is often evidence of the tropical paradise of the forest setting or the greatness of ancestors and ancient civilizations. What was missing in these images were the people. The homes represented were typically empty, with only objects and furniture to give suggestions of its inhabitants.

In this new body of work, Duque turns to figurative representation, focusing on those from the hillside communities or barrios. They are people without means who do what they can for themselves and their families’ survival. Many of them are of Indigenous background and have emigrated from their ancestral lands in search of a better life. In Hombre Emberá, Duque shows an Indigenous man the artist initially encountered in the city. Still, in his painting, he sets the man in a golden jungle, evoking El Dorado, the legendary City of Gold. Folks like the Emberá man are not typical subjects for portraiture in art history, yet this artist has been moved to portray them in his work. Duque thoughtfully represents them with dignity while revealing both their struggle and humanity. As a Colombian immigrant to the United States (arriving in 2001), Duque empathizes and relates to their experience. He understands the feeling of displacement migrants face as they seek a sense of belonging in an often unwelcoming new home.

Duque was inspired by the work of Uruguayan journalist and writer Eduardo Galeano, particularly his 1989 poem “Los Nadies” (“The Nobodies”), in which the author conveys the common perspective many have toward the impoverished in Latin American countries. Galeano has written extensively about the effects of colonialism on developing countries and the “invisible people” left in the wake. “Los Nadies” captures the feeling of hopelessness engendered by apathy, the injustices that they face, and their lack of opportunities for a sustainable life. Duque read Galeano’s writings in college in Medellín, and it has left an impact on him since. Indeed, the title of Duque’s new series is a phrase quoted from Galeano’s poem. Whereas “Los Nadies” makes the situation seem futile, Duque’s paintings do not stop at a dead end. The people are depicted with respect and lauded for their survival skills. Although he offers no easy solutions to a highly complicated political situation, his art shows us that connecting with others is one step we can take toward improving lives.

In 1994, while attending art school in Medellín, Duque exhibited paintings of street life with figures representing ordinary urban dwellers, including Sin Miedo (No Fear),1994. This work also had a political bent, portraying the harsh existence of those living in Colombia’s inner cities. In this way, Los Dueños de Nada is not a departure for the artist but, rather, a return.

Duque’s new series is about visibility for those who are too often ignored. He portrays these figures as individuals rather than stereotypes, showing them as everyday people while imbuing them with distinguished qualities. During the Renaissance and throughout much of art history, portraiture was reserved for the aristocracy and the clergy; only great families of power and wealth, like the Medicis in Italy, could afford to have their portraits painted by renowned artists. Duque uses his brush as a tool to ennoble working-class individuals and Indigenous people from the outskirts of the city. In many of the paintings, he portrays the figures with elongated bodies, reminiscent of Mannerism in the late Renaissance or Baroque periods. However, artists of this earlier style, such as Parmigianino (1503–40) and El Greco (c. 1547–1614), were guided by artifice, rendering sinuous limbs and necks of exaggerated length and affected postures, believed to evince elegance, exquisite grace, and divinity.

In Duque’s case, he employs mannerist depictions to uplift and honor his subjects. It is not an attempt to idealize the body but to add an otherworldly dimension. In that sense, he shares a similar aim as the 16th-century Mannerists—to imbue his subjects with empowerment. In Kings of the World, teenage boys playing soccer stop to take a selfie. Duque believes that sports are an anesthetic of the masses, a distraction that prevents marginalized citizens from revolting against social injustices. However, the painting’s ironic title points to the hope of change and the potential for young people to become leaders.

Duque also cites a more recent reference in modern art, the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901–66), whose sculptures of severely attenuated figures from the 1940s responded to the aftermath of World War II. Duque relates to Giacometi’s attempts to have his figures rise from the earth as if to defy gravity. Similarly, the figures in Duque’s paintings are symbolically elevated, stretching to lift themselves off the ground and reach toward the sky. En El Parque depicts a family of Venezuelan refugees traversing a city park. They have left their home to escape a violent political crisis and embark on a long journey to seek a better environment. Although they lack possessions, jobs, or shelter, Duque does not exploit their strife. Instead, he lets them shine with inner self-worth.

Another historical art reference is post-impressionism and the technique known as pointillism or divisionism, which involves applying dabs of pigment to the canvas that combine optically in the viewer’s eye. This way of depicting the effects of light and color achieves greater luminosity in the painting. As always, Duque makes this technique his own, portraying socially and politically relevant subjects without being heavy-handed. His skewed perspectives and multiple focal points are crucial to reading the works. These techniques create a slight disorientation that makes the space around the figures appear somewhat off-kilter while prompting the viewer to look more intently. In Boy with Dog, for example, the child’s face is the main focal point; the yellow graffiti marks on the wall draw the viewer’s eye toward him. However, the scene is given a precarious quality because of the oblique angle by which the floor meets the step where the boy sits, and the other figure stands; the compressed space adds to the feeling that the bottom could slide out from under them.

To make his paintings, Duque starts by photographing people he encounters in Colombia’s cities and periphery. He transforms these source images into paintings rather than presenting the photographs as his art. Duque is not interested in capturing documentary photographs; instead, he chooses the medium of painting because of the level of interpretation that it introduces. For Duque, “Painting opens doors” and offers more possibilities regarding colors, references, representation, imagination, and influences. Working from source photos allows him to capture reality; however, he can also convey inspiration and tell the story behind the people through painting. With the Emberá girl represented in Jaibana, Duque photographed the child in her village in the rainforest of the Chocó region and then painted her with the lush landscape of her ancestral homeland in the background. Her pose mimics traditional carved wood figurines, and jaibaná means shaman in the Emberá language, giving the girl a mystical quality and personifying an animistic belief in the power of plants, trees, and nature.

These ethereal beings in Duque’s works reveal a great sense of pride that the artist feels in his cultural background as he seeks to confront stigmas and racial biases around the Latine community. In his latest paintings, he has begun to combine his impressionistic figurative imagery with his previous surrealistic landscapes. For example, Reina shows a woman wearing contemporary fashion, standing confidently with a landscape of barrio shacks on a steep hill behind her. The title suggests she represents more than an ordinary woman but a queen (“reina” in Spanish). She holds a red rose, which has carried various symbolic meanings throughout art history, including love, beauty, royalty, and power. The rose is also known as “the queen of flowers.” In these most recent works, Duque has brought surrealism back into his pictures. Regarding this confluence of imagination and realism, the artist asserts, “There is nothing more surreal than reality.”