Alejandro Corujeira Argentinian, b. 1961

Born in Argentina, Alejandro Corujeira studied at the School of Fine Arts in Buenos Aires before moving to Madrid in 1991. In the same year he was the youngest artist in the ground-breaking exhibition, 'El Taller Torres Garcia: The School of the South', curated by Mari Carmen Ramirez at the Huntington Art Gallery. Although his practise is anchored in pre-Columbian Abstraction, over time Corujeira has taken a step beyond geometric abstraction and pursued work that is immersed in Japanese poetry and minimalist classical music.

Combining acrylic, pencil, graphite and watercolour, Corujeira’s sinuous lines undulate and intersect over fields of colour form cellular silhouettes. Far from being a disjointed clutter, Corujeira's abstraction is balanced and deeply considered. Through thinning slow-drying acyclic paint and applying it gradually to the canvas in successive layers, Corujeira’s earthy tones seek to create an experience of absolute contemplation for the viewer.

With these few elements, Corujeira’s work successfully capture a sense of rhythmic and palpitating movement. In an interview with Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro for the Sao Paulo Bienal in 2018, he explained the influence of the musicians John Cage and Iannis Xenakis on how his work can be read as melodies, harmonies, and rhythms superimposed onto the canvas. For Corujeira, abstraction is musical, and music is abstraction. He frequently uses one to inspire the other, and this approach results in beautifully meditative works characterized by intricately calculated rhythms and textural fields that invite close inspection.