About the Artist
Shows - National & International
Artist Statement
I have a passion for art and for teaching it. I paint with devotion and intensity. I like to experiment with lights, colors, volumes and textures as my creativity dictates. Is my style surrealist? Modern? Abstract?... I don't follow a particular "school" of art or technique, I just flirt with them all while pursuing my quest for innovation. I like to carve my own style.
An art piece does not need explanation. My goal and pleasure is creating art that speaks clearly and candidly to viewers. Evolution, refinement and executional improvement are a constant "must" in my work. I continuously strive to escalate the quality and intrinsic value of my art.
As I paint, I exercise the absolute right to select logical or illogical themes and elements. Then tastefully add, omit, exaggerate and distort them as I see fit, so I can sincerely call the work: unique, different, creative, and most of all: "mine".
My best art is yet to be unveiled... Thats's a promise.
Alberto Cruz
Style description
Contemporary? Abstract? Modern?... "Unique" is a better description.
Alberto's artistic taste, creativity and visual sophistication, coupled with the rich movement and color mastery that becomes obvious in his art, have earned him recognition and his place in reputable private and public art collections in the US and abroad.
With expressive use of mixed and vivid colors, and a clean execution, Alberto has created a unique style that is undeniably his. Alberto's work reflects his passion for Art and his undisputed "style differentiation". Alberto's art stands high among leading emerging artists.
Based on his Art trajectory we can only expect from Alberto to sometime very soon surprise the Art World with what would go in History as his "Masterpiece". He is very capable of this.
Latest Awards, Recognitions & Judging
Multi-award wining artist Alberto Cruz has a philosophy with regards to this issue which is shared by many other artists. They feel that it is far more important to win art lovers hearts than wining the subjective decision of a sometimes self-proclaimed "art judge". Yet, Alberto feels that it is both healthy and rewarding to once in a while compete and compare art with his peers. Sometimes he had a big win, sometimes he simply didn't. Following is a partial list of some of his award winnings as well as other recognitions to his artistic merits.
- Best in Show - 2011(national show) Art Celebration Show, Ft. Myers
- Best in Show at The 2005 Englewood annual Member Show
- Best in Show at the 2005 River walk Art Festival of Santa Rosa County.
- First Prize winner at 2004 PIAA Art Show, Orange Beach, Alabama.
- Pensacola Museum of Art 2004 and 2005 Annual Member Shows.
- First Prize at the Tri State Show, Alabama (Al. Fl. Ga.)
- Best in Show at the 2004 Gulf Breeze Fine Arts Festival, Florida.
- Art Judge/Juror at the Winter Members Show 2011, Venice Art Center, Fl. (pend.)
- 2010 Invitation to participate in annual Show by the Museum of Art in Naples.
- Art Judge/Juror at the Art Students Show 2009, Visual Art Center, Punta Gorda
- Art Judge/Juror at the Winter Members Show 2005, Venice Art Center, Fl.
- Judge/Juror at the 16th Annual Jubilee Art Festival, State of Alabama. 2004
- 2010 Invitation to participate in annual Show by the Museum of Art in Naples.
- Alberto has taught art ("Oils & Acrylics") at a few art Centers, including The Visual Art Center of Punta Gorda, where he has been Art Instructor for 5 years. He enjoys sharing his talent and forming good new artists.
Alberto Cruz' artistic evolution.
As an artist, Alberto Cruz' evolution has been typical of a painter who builds on the best from the different stages of his work. His passion for art and uniqueness are present in every work of his.
Cruz began painting landscapes and seascapes with his special touch of creativity. His early landscapes were executed in a unique type of pointillism, which veered from the rules of divisionism followed by pointillists like Seurat and de la Croix.
His style soon won him the acclaim of the best known pointillist in Venezuela, where he lived from 1965 to 1978. In 1976, Alberto was commissioned by Alicia Pietri de Caldera, then Venezuela's First Lady, to paint an "Araguaney in bloom" (National tree), to be hung in one of the conference rooms of the Presidential House in Miraflores, Caracas.
Guided by his innovative spirit, Cruz moved beyond "Nature" reproductions and neo-impressionism and embraced the hyperrealism. He started painting real life as found on the polluted grounds of a poorly maintained park or deteriorated walls of uninhabited houses. After a few years of crude hyperrealism, Alberto started to notice his themes were being taken over by photographers who exploited them to a point considered as "too artistically common". He felt the urge to move on.
At this point, and inspired by Dali's strange sense of humor, Alberto turned his creativity and hyperrealism into neo-surrealism. But after a few years of this challenging period, he refused to belong to the big crowd of Dali "wanna-bes"and again driven by his non conformist personality, he sketched his first "textured woman". Inspired by Gustav Klimt's Art Nouveau, Alberto developed his own collection of exquisite textures and patterns, and his new Art look was born.
While at an early stage, Alberto's women theme captured the soul of the artist and of many art lovers from the Florida Panhandle, all the way to New Orleans, and now down to Southwest Florida and the Gulf Coast, where he resides. His new and very own 360° paintings on continuous wrapped canvas ratify that he can be truly creative and uniquely fresh and a true artist.
Today, Alberto's art clearly displays his pronounced creativity, good use of colors and tasteful execution that have always been his trademark…but there's more to come. According to him, there's something very innovative being unveiled as we speak. His new step forward in the right direction, is starting to capture the attention of a new dimension of Art connoisseurs. Many have only one word for his new step: "Bravo".
Alberto Cruz
acruz123@comcast.net