Alfredo Langarica

It's hard to know if Alfredo Langarica is a figurative painter trapped in the body of an abstract painter, or the reverse, but one thing for sure is that he's good at what he does, be it figurative, abstract or in between. Even he has a hard time categorizing his paintings, and he often referes to them as semi-abstract or semi-figurative. Plus he seems to be consciously trying to erase the boundries and create a hybrid style of his own: the figura-stractive or the abstra-figurative, perhaps. Sometimes, he'll paint a person that blends into the background so completely with such subtle delineatinon that the painting seems abstract at first glance, revealing its human shape only after a thorough look. In other paintings he might have so many small figurative elements packed together that the overall appearance is of the abstract when one views it from even a short distance.

Humor might be considered to be a nearly constant element in Alfredo's work. He often paints angels, some of whom have traded in their wings for bikinis or tongas, and others who seem to be working on loosing their wings because of drinking or drug abuse. He also likes to paint ladies of the night, and sometimes it's hard to differentiate them from the angels, unless you spot their cell phones. Often the title conveys the humor, as in "Couples Anonymous," which portrays a "Hollywood Squares" grouping of couples or as in "Memories of My Favorite Vacations" which shows a couple of sun bathers sitting in a wash tub of water on the roof of their apartment building in Guadalajara, with a bucket of chilled Coronas displayed prominently.