01 — Self-portraits
Emotional cartography: self-portrait, temporality, and chromatic variation — Alexander H. Mabry
I paint myself to discover what a face does when it stops trying to be one.
I. Acrylic
All works are made in acrylic and, in some cases, incorporate wax, acrylic markers, and spray paint. This combination of materials allows for immediacy, fast drying, and a strong capacity for intervention during the process. The image is built intuitively, evolving simultaneously in thought and on the canvas. Each work incorporates changes, impulses, and spontaneous decisions as the piece takes shape. The process, format, and execution decisions of each work are determined by the moment and mood, transferring the emotional impulse to the canvas with minimal interference in the creation process itself. At the same time, the evolution of the overall body of work becomes evident over time, achieving greater complexity and richness of nuance.
Acrylic, spray paint, buried silver leaf and acrylic markers on cotton canvas. The canvas retains small wounds —cuts visible from the reverse— produced during the creative process.
Material, incisions and layers of colour seen up close.
Acrylic, spray paint and acrylic markers on canvas. Worked with brush, palette knife and trowel.
Texture, relief and application marks seen up close.
Acrylic, spray, oil pastel and wax. A face bursting in red, turquoise and yellow: the alarm that is no longer a drill.
Acrylic, spray paint, wax crayons and charcoal. A chorus of faces shouting, overlapping and devouring each other among thorns: the crowd that fits inside a single head.
Acrylic, spray paint and wax crayons. A seated body, arms open, holding the noise that surrounds it.
A monumental face submerged in blue. The whole head against the wall, white tears running beneath the eye — a sadness that fills the entire room.
The face erupts in electric pink against an earthy background. A contained rage that can no longer hold itself in silence.
The face mutates again, this time burning in intense red. The same piece, another version of itself.
The face burning in acid yellow against pink and turquoise. The portrait keeps mutating.
Painting as an attempt to sort out the noise, memory, and the multiple versions of oneself.
Portrait of a childhood.
Connection, meditation, energy, and supraconsciousness.
On the wall — mockups
02 — Archive
Inspiration and experimentation →Earlier works, processes, and parallel branches: the laboratory the self-portraits come from.