“Abel Alejandre (1968, Michoacán, Mexico) is a Mexican-born, United States-based hyperrealist artist, best known for his explorations of masculinity and vulnerability. Working primarily in pencil, Alejandre creates intricately cross-hatched drawings that can take months to complete. Alejandre's series of twelve panels, "Panoramas," is featured at the Los Angeles Metro Rancho Park/Westwood station.
Alejandre also creates woodblock prints using both a giant press he built himself and by hand printing. His monumental My Fathers, which is in the permanent collection at the National Museum of Mexican Art, in Chicago, IL, was created by the latter method.
Alejandre created murals for the 1984 Olympic Games and in 2005 curated and staged an exhibition of Mexican and American artists on the border fence in Mexicali/Calexico border. Alejandre's artworks have been exhibited at venues that include Coagula Curatorial Gallery, Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Tropico de Nopal and the Mexican Cultural Institute. His monumental woodblock print, My Fathers, is part of the permanent collection at the National Museum of Mexican Art, in Chicago, IL.
My drawings are like a personal journal, cataloging past insecurities, insults, and painful memories. Each piece is like an oversized blanket that is, by turns, comforting but almost suffocating. But for those willing to dig deeper, my art serves as an optimistic roadmap that depicts the intimate, honest struggle against hatred and betrayal – a struggle that ultimately leads to salvation and redemption."
