ALEJANDRO AUGUSTINE PADILLA
Artist Statement
Having dealt with the physiological aspects of mental health, such as major depression disorder and panic attacks, this work is the manifestation of an artist’s attempt to face and overcome this trauma-induced anxiety.
Through the use of familiar, yet elusive forms and or symbolism, I create unnatural happenings in an attempt to convey the feelings of isolation and depersonalization that often occur with depression. To further emphasize the sense of anxiety, organic and synthetic objects as well as perverse forms are set within a confined space.
Through the practice of automatism, my ink drawings and paintings become violent improvised abstractions. This artistic process runs parallel to my complex emotional state, wherein my normally refined work and self are stripped down to create an idiosyncratic craft.
Everything from my personal symbolism, my perversions, my sanctimoniousness, my immoral compass, and my search for intellectual enlightenment is represented. Here everything is now a symbol. Every piece laundered to live bearably in my skin.
Artist Bio
Alejandro Augustine Padilla is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in the Surrealist ideals of the subconscious and the discipline of automatism. Padilla’s introspective work delves into the positive and negative effects of past trauma on his creative practice.
Ranging from energetic ink drawings and meticulous oil paintings to inventive assemblages and experimental films, Padilla’s work is an honest documentation of the feverish force to create and balance his mental state. This can particularly be seen in the tension of line work and his ironic use of vibrant colors onto darker subject matter.
Padilla has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout San Antonio and the Southwest. In addition to his full-time artistic practice, over the past 12 years Padilla has run multiple exhibition spaces including Mitos Gallery, the Michigan Building Artist Studios, and Studio Fantomas, where he frequently exhibited the work of emerging San Antonio artists.
Exhibitions
PAST SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 New Old Stock, Not4You Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2020 Solo Exhibition, SMART Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX (Canceled due to covid-19)
2019 Medica/Ex Medica, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2019 Rx Construct, 1906 Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2018 Medica/Ex Medica, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2017 Alejandro Augustine Padilla: New Work, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2016 My New Haunt, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2016 Launder Ur Ghosts 'Nuff, Freight Gallery and Studios, San Antonio TX
2015 Me, Galileo Orbiter, Galileo Orbiter and I, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2014 Launder Your Ghosts, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2013 The Life Perverse, Bihl Haus Arts, San Antonio, TX
2011 The Art of Alejandro Augustine Padilla, Melinda Martinez Studio, San Antonio, TX
2011 Paroxysms of Unintelligibilities, Mitos Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2009 Humanness Thereafter, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2008 Sanctified Science/Theoretical Sacrament, Mitos Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2008 10458, Mitos Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2007 The Next Beautiful Aquarium, El Sol Studio, San Antonio, TX
2006 &s + @s, Jump-Start Performance Co. Gallery, San Antonio, TX
PAST GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017 Art to the Power of Ten, The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
2017 Isocyantas/Polypl/Amine Actalysts, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2017 CAM Perennial: Reflections on Landscapes and Memory, Southwest School of Art,
San Antonio, TX (curated by Chris Ingalls)
2016 New Imagist in the Southwest, Center for Contemporary Arts, San Fe, NM, (jurors Meg Linton and Angie Rizzo)
Dreamers and Realists, Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX, (curated by Jesse Amado)
March Group Exhibition, Concrete Exhibition Space, San Antonio, TX
2015 Nature on the Edge: Mutation and Hybridity in 21st Century Art, Bihl Haus Arts, SA,TX
God is Not Pleased, Clamp Light Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2014 No Money, No Problems, Smart Project Space, San Antonio, TX
Pop Yo Trunk, Plaza Guadalupe, San Antonio, TX
Be Bloody, Bold, and Resolute, Melinda Martinez Studio, San Antonio, TX
Bloodwork, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2013 The Huevos Rancheros Gala, San Anto Cultural Arts, San Antonio, TX
Bloodwork II, Studio Fantomas, San Antonio, TX
2012 22nd Annual Red Dot Art Sale, Sponsor: David Rubin, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center
2011 Blood Work, SMART Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX
Fall Group Show, Mitos Gallery, San Antonio, TX
The Monster Show, Melinda Martinez Studio, San Antonio, TX
2010 M4 Studio Group Show, M4 Studio, San Antonio, TX
One For The Road, Gallista Gallery, Contemporary Art Month, San Antonio, TX
2009 Paper Bullets, One9Zero6 Gallery, San Antonio, TX
LOVE/SICK II, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2008 From SoCal to SoFlo, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2007 The First Annual International Burro Art Exhibit, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
LOVE/SICK, Gallista Gallery, San Antonio, TX
2006 Art Alive, Memorial Branch Library, San Antonio, TX
Artist Bibliography
Iris Gonzalez, “San Antonio’s Latino Artists to Watch in 2016,” The Rivard Report, January 2, 2016.
David S. Rubin, Nature on the Edge: Mutation and Hybridity in 21st Century Art, Exhibition Catalogue, San Antonio: Bihl Haus Arts, 2015.
Bryan Rindfuss, “The Must-See, Must-Do Events of the Week,” The San Antonio Current, March 2014.
Tami Kegley, “Better than Ever: On and Fred Studio Tour,” The Rivard Report, February 2014
Sarah Fisch, “Art is (Not) Dead: How Not to Starve as San Antonio Artist,” The San Antonio
Current, February 5, 2014.
“Museums and Art Centers Offer Incredible Exhibitions for the New Year,” On the Town E-zine, January/February 2014.
Roberto Ontiveros, “Humanely Perverse: Alejandro Augustine Padilla at the Bihl Haus,” The San Antonio Current, December 23, 2013.“
Critic's Pick: Blood Work,” The San Antonio Current, November 2011.
“Xochitl Contemporary Art,” S.A. Fotoseptiembre Blog, September 2008.