Courtesy of Dorothy
Circus Gallery
and the Artist
Matthew Grabelsky - Kiss Me
You are a very fascinating and eclectic person and it seems like you have always had very clear ideas about what you wanted to do. You graduated in Astrophysics and Art at Rice University in Houston, then you moved to Florence to study the oil painting techniques of the great European masters. Afterwards, you lived between New York and Paris cultivating your art and you chose a very specific and absolutely unique and intriguing path. Where do such determination, curiosity and desire to explore different fields come from?
I’ve always been very inquisitive and loved to learn. When I was a kid I constantly asked questions about how things worked. As I got older I never stopped asking questions and I became interested in science because I saw it as a way to get answers to my questions. My uncle was an astronomer and he sparked my interest in the stars so I went to college to study science and received a degree in Astrophysics.
Starting from when I was very young I loved making sculpture. I used all different materials and mostly created animals and fantastical creatures. My parents were both in the arts. My mother was a dancer and my father worked in film and television production and they always encouraged my artistic side. My interest in painting started around the end of high school. I began looking at Old Master and 19th century European drawings and paintings and I wanted to know how they were made. This led me to pursue a second degree in college in art in addition to my astrophysics degree and then to move to Florence after graduation to study at a small technical drawing and painting school.
How did your education in astrophysics influence your approach to art?
The subject matter and imagery in my work is inspired by my emotions and memories. However, my process of creating the paintings is very analytical. I approach making them almost like I’m trying to solve a scientific problem. I start with an idea and then gather reference material so I can understand how to represent the image that I have in my head. I even use knowledge I learned while studying physics about how light works to help make my paintings look convincing.
Seen in person, my paintings look realistic but not exactly real. Unlike a photograph, which is flat with pigment distributed over a smooth sheet of paper, my paintings have a mysterious material quality created by layers of oil paint. To achieve this effect I’ve developed my technique over many years. While I want the painting to look very natural and organic, the actual method I use to get this effect is very systematic. I build the painting up in a specific set of layers. It’s almost like I am engineering the painting to create the artistic look I want to achieve. This methodical approach is strongly influenced by my training in science.
Matthew Grabelsky - Midtown Lizard Brain
I want my paintings to show a snapshot of the life of one of my characters. I include details that relate to the character and the particular animal that they are embodied by. This may be food that the animal would eat or a book, magazine, or newspaper that tells a story about the animal. I like to have a number of these kinds of details in a painting so that the viewer has an overall impression of the piece and then starts looking at all the details and gets drawn further into the world.
I think it’s fascinating how much you can tell about the relationships between people by observing their body language. In my paintings with multiple characters, I want to create a dynamic where you can look at the image of these people and understand their connection, what they may be thinking, how they feel about each other, etc.
Matthew Grabelsky - Bear Necessities
Matthew Grabelsky - Crow Magnon
Matthew Grabelsky - Bad Kitty
Matthew Grabelsky - What To Expect When You’re Expecting
Matthew Grabelsky - Farmer’s Market
What is your creative process, from the conception of an idea to the final realization of a painting?
I start with an initial idea for a painting. Then I get a friend or family member who fits the character to model for me. I discuss the concept with them and ask them to pick a few outfits that would work for the character. I then do a photoshoot where they move around and I take a bunch of photos. I’m looking for a pose that embodies the character and also looks dynamic and natural. After that, I do a series of pencil and oil studies as well as mockups in Photoshop so I can visualize what the finished painting will look like. After all that preparatory work is done I do a full-size drawing which I transfer to the canvas and then build up the painting in a series of layers of oil paint.
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Flesh Love All, Ringo&Satomi
Why do humans who love each other embrace and kiss one another? I imagined a story in which they were originally one being divided by God into two separate human beings. I came up with the idea of vacuum-packing the couple to embody this concept. In other words, love is the entity that brings them into one being, and they, vacuum-packed, are a metaphor for that. The force of the vacuum is tremendous, their faces and bodies are pulled and deformed, but this is a metaphor for the intensity of love, and this state can only be maintained for an instant. Therefore I photograph this moment to preserve it forever.
Flesh Love Returns, Taiki&Shino
Flesh Love Returns, Julie & Shota, Styling by stylist Lotta Volkova
Flesh Love All, Ryo&Mariko
Of course love is the force moving everything, wonderful but also horrible things are done for love, it is the engine of the world and you have decided to tell it in your own way. Your art is also an invitation to love, to intimacy, to touching each other in a historical moment in which people have lost familiarity with the physical connection with others, have I understood correctly?
Yes, as you’ve understood, I believe that everything in the world, even war, is rooted in love. Due to the spread of infectious diseases, nowadays we often communicate without face-to-face contact. But if there is love there, you want to touch the other persons, and if you touch them the feeling of love deepens.
On what basis do you choose the models to portray? I guess that to be part of the construction of your shots must be for them a nice challenge, but also an experience.
In the past, I used to prefer taking pictures of persons in unusual outfits at DJ parties, who were out of their daily lives. Later, I started photographing more everyday people. Now I take photos of more persons of all ages and lifestyles. Ideally, I hope that the subjects I choose will be varied enough to represent the composition of society as it is.
Flesh Love Returns, Johnnie&Kafka
Flesh Love Returns, Cristy&Jimmi
ZATSURAN, Usagi&Daisuke
Flesh Love, Chihiro&Takeshi
ZATSURAN, Nic&Motoko
There was a time, around the age of 20, when I travelled a lot and started taking photographs to document the sights and sounds of my journeys.
Flesh Love Returns, Ruby&Brian
I always carried a camera with me on my trips and took pictures of the people and sceneries I encountered. Having a camera made it easier for me to see new sights and talk to people I didn’t know. In other words, for me, the camera was not only a tool for recording, but also one for communicating with others. After a while, I came to know the works of Daido Moriyama, for example, and discovered the element of expression in photography. I would take pictures from an animal point of view, not in a social sense. For instance, I looked at the letters on a billboard in a city not for their meaning, but as a figure. Then I went to work for an advertising design company beginning as a photographer in the photography department. There I took photos of everything from people and appliances to jewellery and food, and I learned techniques like how to create light and so on. I continued to work for an advertising company, while showing my artworks in galleries. My skills in advertising photography are used to give birth to my artworks, and my experience in creating them is employed in advertising photography.
For me, photography is an essential part of living and enjoying life.
Your name is Haruhiko Kawaguchi, why did you choose the pseudonym Photographer Hal?
I am conscious of the computer named ‘HAL’ in Kubrick’s movie. In Japan in the 1990s, ‘Purikura machines’ were popular in game arcades and other places where young girls and couples would take pictures and print stickers that came out on the spot. I saw this and I was impressed by the machine’s ability to print stickers so I thought that this mechanical ‘Purikura machine’ would be ideal for photo shoots. The image of this machine merged with my real name and became my artist name.
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The theme of ecstasy in Jordi Díaz Alamà’s works manifests through an intense tension between body and spirit, elevation and fall. Inspired by classical masters, the artist explores ecstasy as a human condition of transcendence and torment. In his reinterpretation of “Dante’s Divine Comedy”, Alamà depicts souls in a state of suffering that evokes a perverse ecstasy, where pain merges with an aspiration towards the divine. This dualism is also expressed in the dynamic brushstrokes and contrasts between realism and abstraction, where anatomical precision blends with a freer gestural style, symbolizing the eternal tension between matter and spirit.
Jordi Díaz Alamà navigates the boundaries of tradition and experimentation, making his work a dialogue between the past and the present. At the heart of his artistic vision is a constant engagement with past masters, from whom he draws technical and symbolic inspiration, only to distill new meanings through a visual language that merges classical figuration with contemporary abstraction.
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Retrato Maria
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Valor y al toro
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Friso de las almas I
His work is characterized by intense realism, constructed with a high level of technical mastery inherited from the teachings of 19th-century painting masters and refined through studies with contemporary realism artists. This formal precision, however, does not end in a faithful reproduction of the visible world but opens up to experimentation with bolder, more modern elements, as seen in the #ClásicosDesollados series, where he tears and ‘skins’ the works of past masters, revealing their intrinsic modernity.
Central to his artistic reflection is the idea of humanity in balance, in a perpetual tension between elevation and fall. In his monumental reinterpretation of Dante’s “Inferno”, Alamà explores not only the pain of damned souls but also offers a portrait of contemporary torment, alienation, and disillusionment. His figures, though immersed in an epic and mythic narrative, appear surprisingly close to our reality, compelling the viewers to confront their own inner and collective hell.
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Suite Paradise Mina
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Suite Paradise Mina
The works of Díaz Alamà, such as Red Studio or the scenes from the “Divine Comedy”, juxtapose visual universes that challenge the static nature of academic painting, with brushstrokes oscillating between anatomical precision and an almost abstract dynamism. Red, the dominant color in these series, becomes a symbolic and atmospheric element, a thread that connects the sensuality of the human body to the brutality of infernal fire.
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Vulcano. Red Studio
Jordi Diaz Alamà - Aurora. Red Studio
Díaz Alamà’s working philosophy resides in the balance between technical control and creative freedom. Each work emerges from a hybrid process where live models, digital compositions, and classical techniques interact, resulting in works that are both anchored in tradition and projected towards the future. This approach is also reflected in his teaching activities: through the Barcelona Academy of Art, founded in 2013, the artist promotes training that combines academic rigor with openness to experimentation.
Alamà constantly engages with the major themes of art history, but with the intent of reinterpreting the present. His works, while deeply rooted in realism, extend beyond the representation of the visible to explore the psychological and existential dimensions of the human condition, serving as a vehicle for reflection on contemporary issues.
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