'Guacanayabo' (2025). Alexandre Arrechea. Oil on canvas. 40 inches x 50 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Simard Bilodeau Contemporary. All Rights Reserved.
‘Caribbean Stages’ by Alexandre Arrechea @ Simard Bilodeau Contemporary
Señor Alexandre Arrechea provides an idea of honor, dare I say love, of his native Cuba with a testimony to its inescapable coral reefs with his Caribbean Stages exhibition at Simard Bilodeau Contemporary. His sculptural history translates an experience and relation to space which moves the optics of the viewer with his oils and pronounced staging that delights with the subtlety.
Depth to each of his works – where his original artistry depicting Cuban coral is proudly performing – causes the observation, not an experience of havoc, but what is so appropriate to this variation of contemporary still-life: placid appreciation.
No, this is not to be considered in the same mode as other ideas of staging, like in the Dutch Golden Age: it is instead to enjoy the experience of life and its crystalline nature that grows organically into that order which, I am reluctant to inform is chaotic – because that introduces a sense of madness to what coral is, which it is not. In that reaching for life, however, so well represented with a truly original idea, we have a performance which is patiently animated into static independent forms.
‘Guanahacabibes’ (2025), Alexandre Arrechea. Oil on canvas. 50 inches by 40 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Simard Bilodeau Contemporary. All Rights Reserved.
Dancing may be an appropriate thought of what is certainly kinetic on display, but carries with it a calming appreciation with primary colors as its castmates.
The colors add a dimension to each composition, and its varietal stages, that introduces, with the compositions terrifically detailed lines, uniqueness to each viewing.
‘Jardines de la Reina’ (2025), Alexandre-Arrechea. Oil on canvas. 50 inches x 80 inches on Diptych. Courtesy of the artist and Simard Bilodeau Contemporary. All Rights Reserved.
I’m particularly fond of Jardines de la Reina (2025) – which has a dramatic idea contained in the right-portion of the canvas, unto a fastidious care of the diptych’s two panels interconnected with more than green, but a harmony of lines that provides a glimpse into a staging backdrop which persists in shaping the perception of the viewer without a blemish in the attention. For the notice of the parabolic contour on the left does not jar with the rectilineality in the rest of the painting.
With this contribution to space, amongst the other thoughtful beautiful extensions, there is perhaps an expression of love of the Caribbean for those who need a fonder memory than photography. But a daring idea of original beauty.
For more information, please contact the gallery:
1923 S. Santa Fe Avenue,
Suite 300, Los Angeles,
CA, 90021
TUESDAY to SATURDAY:
11 AM – 6 PM
and by appointment
Tel (+1) 949 371 7414