ReyAlfonso
Patricia&Rey

La Fiesta 2023 Artist

Rey Alfonso

Assisted by:

Annabelle, Chloe, Izzy, & Veronica
Collaborative Work

Available for Auction

Slice of Life

Suggested Donation: $950

Mixed Media on Baltic Birch with Artifact. 10×60″

Inspired by Rey’s love of Art Deco architecture in his homeland of Cuba. This nod to a lucky shape features the elegant stepped forms of Art Deco and the colors of Cuban tropical splendor. The preliminary layers of this painting were created by the four students with whom Rey collaborated. The boat shape is both a reference to Rey’s immigration story and a nod to our collective journeys.

Artist Original

Available for Purchase

Fragments of a Journey

Artist’s Price: $5,500

Mixed Media on Baltic Birch. 24×72″ framed in 1.5″ float square frame & ready to hang.

Rey’s signature series is inspired by his life’s journey. The wooden oar, found at sea, represents the experiences of migrants and immigrants who leave their homelands in search of a better future. 

Rey’s work is a balance of abstract imagery and direct representation of textures from Cuba. Utilizing a chisel, a traditional wood-working tool, Rey incises his drawing into the surface of his painting, providing an outline for the painting process. These lines later gain further significance, either inferring the long slats used in boat-building, or creating the textured lines that remain visible in the finished work.

Artist Original

Available for Purchase

Skittles

Artist’s Price: $5,500

Mixed Media on Baltic Birch. 48×49″ + contemporary floater frame.

“Skittles” is an abstracted representation of community. Each seedlike geometric form overlaps to create a unified whole that is stronger + more intriguing because of its parts. Rey’s father is a farmer in Cuba and these forms take me back to the shapes of the seeds and the colors of his crops. Today, Rey’s father continues to grow everything he eats including rice, black beans and the peppers in his sofrito.

The Collaborative Process

More About the Artist

Born in Matanzas, Cuba in 1974, Rey grew up surrounded by intense contrasts of colors, pre-1959 American cars and the surging Communist government. His immersion in Cuba’s rhythms and sensuousness was short lived but nonetheless had a lasting impact on his young imagination. Today Alfonso’s work can be found in collections in more than 40 countries. He has created works for individuals and organizations ranging from the San Francisco Opera House to the Mayo Clinic. In 2010, he was commissioned by Hilton Worldwide to create over 150 works for the private collections of the company’s owners and investors.