Born in Cuba in 1960, Jesús Torres Alfonso draws inspiration from the vibrant beauty of Caribbean nature. His work bursts with bold colors and radiates a distinctive, vibrant energy.
Cosmina / PPG: Through this interview, we hope to learn more about you — the person behind the art — and how your artistic journey has unfolded.
How did your artistic story begin?
Jesús: My artistic story started when I was a child, time in which my artistic sensitivity was awakened by being in contact with the natural beauties of Cuba, my birth country.
Being a teenager, I first felt the need to create art, and I began to passionately develop my artistic creativity using the most varied materials, such as ceramics, metal, wood, leather and fabric, always inspired by my natural environment.
It was then when I felt the need to support my family financially, and I began to sell my works in public squares in Havana. This allowed me to raise sufficient resources to pay for my trip to the United States in 1997, the date on which I emigrated and settled in Miami, where I have lived and worked since then.
I started again in Miami, selling my Art in public plazas, and participating in several physical exhibitions. But it was not until 2022 when I began to explore virtual art platforms, also developing my presence on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest. This allowed me to expand my visibility, with my participation in countless virtual exhibitions sponsored by prestigious international art groups.
I currently have my works exhibited in the virtual international gallery Artmajeur. And I am represented by People and Paintings Gallery based in New York.
How would you describe your style and the themes that concern you the most?
Jesús: I feel that my style is surreal. When I create Art, I establish a mystical and spiritual connection with my environmental context, and I give free rein to my most frenetic imagination, to create the most unsuspected places by the human mind, as well as magical characters loaded with great mysticism and spirituality.
In this way I create worlds not conquered by man, inhabited by beings that merge with flora and fauna to be reborn in a new world where flora, fauna and man create together a new habitat, following patterns of Surrealist and Abstract art, and sometimes Psychedelic art.
My main source of inspiration is Nature, with its infinite generosity and great beauties. It is the main artist in my works. My imagination and my inspiration are nourished by Nature every day. From It I take knowledge and wisdom, experience and praxis.
One of my themes of excellence is the indispensable preservation of Nature; the construction of a world where resilience, empathy, the closest collaboration between species, and human action dedicated to the conservation of the environment prevail. The search for an ecological balance between flora, fauna and man, as well as the search for a psychological and emotional equilibrium in man's life on Earth, is expressed in my art as its "leitmotif".
Where do you find inspiration more often? Is there an artist in art history that you feel you identify with?
Jesús: I am 64 years old, but I am still a dreamy, imaginative, very spiritual artist full of creative energies, always motivated to take on new challenges and innovative experiences. My paintings allow me to confirm many theoretical and practical knowledge acquired throughout my life, and reinforce my conviction that we both, artist and works, are part of the same identity, of the same essence; that we belong to each other.
My style is a very personal and unique one. I have reached a stage in my artistic career of more than 50 years in which a personalized and exclusive style can be identified. Any spectator in the presence of one of my works could easily identify me as its author. However, some art specialists could still "feel" the legacy of Masters such as Wifredo Lam, Manuel Mendive and René Magritte in my paintings.
Jesús: What were the key moments of your artistic story?
The key moments of my artistic story are the following:
- At the very beginning, when I was a teenager, and I decided to start selling my artworks in public plazas in Havana.
- In 1984 when I graduated as an Engineer in Havana University. My knowledge as an Engineer has been important and useful in my artistic creativity.
- When I emigrated to the United States in 1997 and I established in Miami.
In 2022 when my painting “Pollination in the Garden of Love”, was selected to be exposed in the 2022 Florida Biennial in Hollywood, Florida, hosted by the Hollywood Art and Culture Center in the United States. It was selected after a curatorial selection process, amongst more than 1000 submitted paintings by more than 300 artists from all the state of Florida.
- In 2022 when I decided to strengthen and develop my presence in social media platforms, and I openned an acount in Artmajeur International Virtual Gallery, to expose more than 20 original paintings I had available at that moment to be exposed and sold.
- In 2022 I also started working with New York People and Paintings Gallery, until the present when I got the representation by this important Gallery and I am recognized as a House Artist.
What is next in your artistic practice? What do you dream of or want to explore next?
Jesús: A central objective in my artistic career is to continue enhancing the visibility of my work internationally, with participation in physical and virtual exhibitions all around the world. Of great interest to me would be to create a retrospective solo exhibition, covering a large part of my artistic works.
Thank you so much! We were delighted to have you share your art and life story with us.
Zaplaflora revealed more about himself in the Gallery page linked here, where you can also discover a series of his artworks.
An interview by Cosmina-Marcela Oltean,
PPG media moderator & art writer
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