Alejandro Caiazza

Born in Santa Fé Argentina in 1972, Alejandro Caiazza has Italian roots and was raised in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. He was trained in architecture and fine arts at the Jose Maria Vargas University in Caracas, Venezuela. His first one-man art-gallery exhibition as a fine artist was on April 1999 at the “Sala de Arte de Sidor” in Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela. In 2000 Caiazza moved to Paris, France and lived and worked in Paris for 10 years. He spent a period studying at L’École Supérieure Des Beaux-Arts in Paris, attending courses taught by his teacher and mentor, Ouanes Amor. In 2010 he developed a universal language by mixing various traces, signs, figures, and colors, communicating feelings and sensations known to all. By the end of the year, he exhibited at the Lavatoio Contumatiale in Rome, Italy. Caiazza currently works and resides in New York City. He continues creating extraordinary pieces that reflect the artist’s emotions. In his most recent work he demonstrates a strong passion for American pop culture, embracing traditional forms expressed in primary colors, and sometimes adopting a ‘naive’ technique. Alejandro creates whimsical and delightful paintings at first glance, but often there is a deeper, darker side to his work. He creates elementary and childish figures, often cruel, inspired by the drawings of children, which often include criminals, skulls, clowns, and madmen. These silly, wacky characters, lurid and subhuman, are deformed, absurd, and grotesque figures. Many of the paintings are inspired by feelings and daily life. He uses acrylic, oil bar, charcoal, and spray paint and likes to experiment with mixed media on cardboard, canvas, and wood. His style is “art brut” or “neoexpressionism,” with influences such as Jean Dubuffet, Jonathan Meese, Georg Baselitz, William de Kooning, Jean Michel Basquiat, and A.R. Penk. With a truly international background, Alejandro Caiazza is a well-traveled mixed-media artist with an abundance of experience in life and emotion. His family has Italian roots; however, he was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. His family soon transplanted to Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela where he was raised for the rest of his childhood and teenage epochs. He then progressed on to Caracas, Venezuela where he received a BFA in Architecture and Fine Arts at the Jose Maria Vargas University. In 2000, after most of his life spent in Venezuela, he immigrated to Paris to continue working as a professional artist for the next 10 years. It is here that he studied at the reputable L’Ecole Superieure des Beaux-Arts and attended courses taught by his teacher and mentor, Ouanes Amor. Caiazza currently lives and works in New York City. By 2010, Caiazza developed a distinguishable and universal language in his work, which he visually describes to the viewers by mixing various traces, signs, figures, and colors. He transforms and melds these together to communicate feelings and sensations he would like to think are known to all. He frequently works with the emotion of anguish. At first glance his mixed-media artworks appear whimsical and delighting, however there is a deeper and darker prism to his work. The elementary images, which he discloses to us with naïve figures and a soft yet contrasted palette along with the use of thin lines and extensive layering, are often inflicted with a sort of knowledge that is usually reserved for adults. With eyes and faces full of expression and sometimes grotesqueness, he imposes a cruelty and a criticality onto his subjects. Agitators to authority, free dissenters living lives of low responsibility, forever children – these are his people. Caiazza’s style is categorized as brut and neoexpressionist. His prevailing mediums include acrylic paint, bar oil, charcoal, and spray paint on cardboard, canvas, and wood. His noted influences are Jean Dubuffet, Jonathan Meese, Georg Baselitz, William de Kooning, Jean Michel Basquiat, and A.R. Penk. He has shown at galleries in Venezuela, France, Italy, Japan, and the United States for over 20 years.