An intimate environment ignited his vocation:

Artist Marcos Alegría belongs to a very well-known Puerto Rican family.  Distinguished members of his relatives, as him, have shined, as influential players in the island’s modern culture.

His father’s legacy:

Alegría’s father, Marcos Juan Alegría, was art professor in Dorado, for the Public Department of Education. To this day he is recognized as that Municipality's  most influential Painter. A well-deserved recognition, for his lifelong vocation of teaching the virtues of Art, to Dorado's  art students.

Our artist, Marcos, developed his love and vocation for art, by growing up at his father’s work shop. From an early age, he received the valuable lessons that his father would impart on him. He was also influenced, by principal figures of the painting community, like Felix Bonilla Norat and Osiris Delgado, who frequently visited his father’s studio.

Formal education  and  professional career:

Marcos Alegría, went to enroll at the “Escuela de Bellas Artes del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña” in San Juan. In that prestigious specialized art center, he successfully completed his studies in Art Painting and Stain Glass Design. Following his vocation, he went on to continue his art studies with: Augusto Marín, Fran Cervoni, Rafael Lopez Del Campo and Ernest Rosell. One of the teachers that most influenced his art formation was Augusto Marin, with whom he developed a close friendship. Marín invited the young artist to work at his art studio at Calle San Sebastian in Old San Juan. Alegría made good use of the opportunity. He worked arduously to refine his painting skills, guided by Marin’s proven teaching method. From Marín, he learned additional advance criteria and methods of art creation. Alegría went on to establish his own art studio. He has  matured artistically and has developed his unique narrative and style of painting. He has become a resourceful and successful artist. 

Proven credentials:

Marcos Alegría has effectively carved a seat of honor in the Puerto Rican art market. He has proven himself to the art community and the public through a successful artistic career that has extended for three decades.

He has presented exhibitions of his art works in San Juan and also at many cities in the interior of the island. His paintings have been showed at a selected number of Puerto Rico’s main art galleries, important government and private institutions. His presence has surpassed our enclave boundaries to be appreciated abroad in the United States, Spain, Colombia, Cuba and Dominican Republic.

Achieved goals:

His paintings are enriched by his artistic style masterful execution and the profoundness of his message . These valuable elements contained in his creations, are attributes that capture the interest of high end art enthusiasts who collect his work. Through his extensive professional career, he has been able to establish great demand for his work and high value to his paintings in both artistic and monetary terms. His Art is part of important private art collections in the island.

Commentary:

Marcos Alegría’s large format paintings, visually illustrate the essence of Caribbean idiosyncrasy. Our nature as living entities is depicted as a message, that originates from his profound introspection.  Accordingly, his images  reflect the yin-yang energies that define the presence of duality in our living dimension- They show the warms brilliance and intensity of the illumination that vibrates in the tropics, were the “Mighty Sun” reins over us, in contrast, with our dark essence. The stormy turbulence that plagues our spirituality.

As an observer I feel he talks directly to me about the dynamics  of living. In his fantastic imagery, I see myself, immersed in the existential whirlwind he incisively illustrates in his visual stories. I see, he points my attention, to the ambiguity and conflict that lurks within.

His imagination gives birth to impressive and mysterious images populated by us, striving to achieve the illusive principles of idealism. He depicts us humans, as anthropomorphic figures in a mirage. Distorted in our form, by our internal emotional chaos. Humanity is shown unconsciously immersed in its intrinsic pitiful mundane existence. In his fantastic images, he shows a supposed public, living in doubt and sadly impacted by self-produced limitations. Alegría seduces the spectator with his assertive pictorial drama.

The artist masterful command of ample array of plastic resources fortify the profound meaning of his narrative. The presented human hoard rebounds between a heavy wall of emotional pain and the potential liberating liquidity of ecstasy. This is the proposed duality available to us  in our low vibration existential dimension. By conflict and imposition Life creates a Humanity that must make the right choices to surpass its egoistic limitations . 

His contorted figures populate the urban and natural landscape in a deranged state. Existing and most of the time ignoring, the manifestation of our potential for redemption. The artist’s images illustrate, the conflict inherent in our daily routine.  Our lives are marked by emotional anxiety and fear. We live a fractured existence that flows between egoistic auto destructiveness and the potential freedom that may be achieved by an enlightened conscience. The artist interest us, in both the limitations and the potential that we carry as humans . Our potential opportunity for fulfillment usually evades us, as the product of our inability to internalize the true nature of our existence. He recognizes how the ego’s dynamics can bring us to our knees. In contrast to that pitiful proposal, a message of  hope emerges. In the drama and passion that permeate his painted characters he proposes, that the subjective conflict prevalent in our split up living dimension can be surpassed. Attainment of an enlighten conscience is a true possibility that vibrates within our higher Nature.

 

Text by René Castillo Ramos, Reproduction denied without author consent Copyright© 2015