PAW Patrol by Alejandro "Chaplin" in Cork

Alejandro is a young multidisciplinary artist with a large repertoire of works done in Spain. His work focuses mainly on murals and graffiti, but he has also made many oil and acrylic canvases and several sculptures with iron. He has made several exhibitions in Spain and worked for municipalities, schools, private companies. If you want to see some of his works, you can find them on his website: alejandrobaño.com also on Facebook as: Alejandro Baño Marín and on Instagram as: Chaplin_art98. Alejandro is a multidisciplinary artist born in 1998 in Caravaca de la Cruz (Murcia, Spain). Alejandro is an artist interested in the arts as well as in the sciences and philosophy. His beginning in the arts. He is curious. Once he finished the ESO, Alejandro started the science studies, but he dropped out a week after starting the classes due to his dissatisfaction at that time with the educational system in his city. The following year, he began the arts studies, which he also dropped out within a week for the same reasons. That year he met Orencio Caparrós, a history teacher. This who was to become a great friend of Alejandro's, urged him to continue with the paintings that at that time he began to do almost compulsively. In the meantime, he would be in charge of organizing an exhibition for him. Thus began the Alejandro's journey through the world of art, a journey that would extend to the sciences by means of his inveterate reading. I will now to present the letter of introduction that Orencio wrote for this young artist's exhibition: Alejandro isn’t just the name of an artis. Alejandro can be many things, because at 19 years old, you can be anything. I met him in Contemporary World History class, but it was a fleeting acquaintance. Two weeks into the course, he waited for me efore leaving the classroom to say goodbye and clarify that he simply couldn’t stand six hours a day reciving explanations on languages, literature, drawing, history… It wasn’t personal, he said, but I feel like a caged animal. I have to find another path. I asked him, I admit, without much hope, to endure a little longer, but he was convinced of what he was saying, and he flew away. A few months later, I ran into him again in the halls of IES San Juan de la Cruz. I greeted him, he told me he was painting, and he showed me the images he had on his phone. They seemed to me of a strange maturity. I thought maybe he was documenting himself by looking at images of contemporary painting, but that wasn’t the case. The paintings he showed me reminded me of artists like Pollock, Kandinsky, Klee, Chagall, Gris… It may seem exaggerated, but it was like that, and anyone who attends this exhibition, the first one he’s done, and knows the cited authors, will understand that it’s not just the result of my personal affection and admiration. What amazed me is that Thomas didn’t know any of these painters, I can attest to that. When I later saw his works, I started labeling them with who each painting suggested to me. He tok note because he didn’t know any of them, I insist. I didn’t find any student who understood the difference between analytical and synthetic cubism so quickly. He got it on the first try and opted for the beautiful and elegant synthesis of Juan Gris, and I was glad. This exhibition, which is now being inaugurated, is a showcase of versatility in meanings and skills, both in traditional drawing and in the author’s innovative way of changing color. Comics and new forms of image representation through new media leave a different and personal imprint on his work. In many of them, nuances are dispensed with to generate strongly contrasting fields of light and shadows. In other cases, there’s a play with the clash of colors to achieve a sought-after stridency, as in the technique of graffiti artists, which he also assimilates perfectly. Resting your gaze on one of his paintings allows, as Matisse said, to rest after a hectic day. I don’t know, because I’ve never read the future, what life has in store for Alejandro, but I do know that it’s a good opportunity to buy a piece from someone with a promising future. A future that will depend, in any case, on his determination and perseverance, and judging by his passion, it’s expected to be fruitful. I’ve always referred to painting, but this artist from Caravaca doesn’t limit his world to brushes. Coming from a family of blacksmiths, he’s drawn to the strength and power of material and its volume, and it’s not surprising that he allows for inquiries into a novel and strange way of creating space in the air. I hope and wish that you enjoy the work of this young artist, endowed with special intuition and imagination, and who still has a long journey of discoveries and dreams ahead of him. In my web page https://alejandrobaño.com/ you can see the works both pictorial and sculptural works, integrated in his first essayistic text of literary style, Reality and Quantum Lucubrations. Welcome to the world of this young artist with a restless and curious mind, an artist gifted with a special intuition, which comes loaded with new surprises for society.