Alejandro is a collage artist from Guatemala. He has been a graphic designer for about 20 years. In 2019, he had the desire to create art with his hands for himself. He hadn’t tried collage but liked the idea of it, so he did some research about collage art/artists, and started creating.
His work is heavily influenced by the musician, Tycho. As well as by the Bauhaus movement.
When he started creating collages, he wanted to do something that would make his work stand apart from other collage artists, especially in the NFT market, and he decided to put his creations on vibrant, brightly colored paper. He is a geometry fan, so those shapes also make a regular appearance in his work.
I asked about his process, and he said that he puts all of his ideas/thoughts into a blender in his mind, and then puts that onto the paper. He doesn’t have much desire in creating digital collages, he loves the tactile process of cutting out images and putting them together with his hands.
We discussed the series, Paper Dudez. He has put so much detail into each of these, that if you don’t zoom in, you’ll totally miss it. You can find these on Opensea. We discussed the image, Bat dude, which I love, and he told me that the eyes are actually “Bs”! He then told me that this series was used as an inspiration for a classroom project by a Colombian friend of his, as a means to introduce the blockchain and NFTs to children.
We discussed his lack of free time to create NFTs as much as he would like, but that he does get to spend his weekends creating collages.
He likes to collect the art of his friends/community as a way to give back, and also to help the NFT market continue to grow.
His favorite artist is Salvador Dali.
His favorite color is green!!!
If he could change 1 thing in the NFT market, it would be to get rid of the scammers. He said that there are still so many rites of passage that folks go through in Web3, and getting scammed needs to be eradicated.
He is currently working on the money series, which is his way of showing that fiat is dying. He is transforming fiat into crypto art and therefore putting cash onto the blockchain. We discussed the precision that it takes for him to create these collages, and how he has to take out his contacts so that he can get super specific in his cutting movements.
He said that he has friends sending him Lebanese and Egyptian fiat for the next ones in the series.
The message he wants people to take away from his work is to be free. That everyone can be whoever they want to be.
Listen to the full podcast here!