Alejandro Campins Fleita

Alejandro Campins Fleita (Manzanillo, Cuba, 1981)

The large canvases by Alejandro Campins invite to be tou­ched to verify if they really exist as “paintings” or just as part of the space. Or in fact, is it a symbiosis of both? Actually it is the space created by painting, in his case – a space of con­templation and calm only in appearance. Multiple stories are taking place within. They dabble in the landscape tradition – including, of course, certain characte­ristic features of mimesis of reality and technical mastery in their execution – but as an excuse for a narrative going from the individual to his environment. This narrative is inevitably loaded with history, society and thought. Carefully observed, Campins’ landscapes are so suspiciously empty and static that they betray the amount of life in progress within them. That is why his paintings makes sense, and in his own words, should make us uncomfortable.

About his work the artist said: “Nature is like a great museum: wherever we go, our glance tells us a story full of energy, of life and death, of old and new. I am seduced by the beauty of these places, because they are reliable testimonies of time; of the way in which nature and human activity unite and create a strange reality – a timeless reality. I am very much interested in the concepts of impermanence and timelessness, not only in painting, but in life. It is my intent that, when people stand in front of one of my landscapes, they do not have a comfortable experience.”

His works are part of the collections of Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana; Daros Latinoamerica Collection, Zurich; Shelley & Donald Rubin Collection, New York; CIFO. Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; Voorlinden Museum, Wassenaar, Netherlands; Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris; Pizzuti Collection, Columbus, Ohio; AMA Foundations, Chile; Jorge Pérez Collection, Miami.

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