Walking into Alfredo Garcia’s art gallery is like entering the inner sanctum of a church. His dark works on wood tower over visitors in his small studio in Village of the Arts.
In his Village of the Arts gallery, artist Alfredo Garcia sits in front of his painting on wood. CORRESPONDENT PHOTOS / J. NIELSEN
Many of the art works are biblical in nature and powerful.
“My paintings are very simple subjects with a lot of detail,” he said.
Garcia opened his gallery, Arte Coyoacano, less than a year ago in Village of the Arts. Primarily a self-taught artist, Garcia works in stone, and plaster of paris for his masks and he paints in oils on wood.
Some of his plaster of paris masks of Kahlo and Diego Rivera were on display in a community shrine in honor of the two Mexican artists at the Day of the Dead celebration in the Village of the Arts.
Although Garcia has only been in Bradenton a short time, but he feels connected to the community. “Being an artist is quite difficult. It is just passion; it doesn’t matter if you make money or not.”
Garcia first studied philosophy at the University of Mexico City before beginning 10 months of art studies at the International Institute of Art. His favorite philosophers were Schopenhauer and Plato. Recently, he’s been studying the pre-Raphaelite artists and said “the 19th century artists opened a new door to beauty.” Garcia spends a long time on his artwork, and it shows. “The reward is always seeing a piece finished.”
Photos of some of his pieces currently for sale can be viewed at: villageofthearts.com or email him at Honeybearz20@aol.com