Alex Alemany has made a living as a painter since finishing his studies in Fine Arts in San Carlos de Valencia, having gone through a useful training at the School of Arts and Crafts. He was born in Gandía in 1943, and followed the usual trajectory in the plastic creators of that time, embarking on the avant-garde towards abstract expressionism. Until 1975 he found his own poetic sensibility, fueled by the magical realism of literature and portraiture.
Alex Alemany does not teach at any institution, he is not an official, he does not show up for competitions or contests. He makes a living in his craft, which dominates in the best sense of the term, and from which he makes a profit that facilitates his existence. In another time such a person was called a “teacher”; today, the term some use for an exceptional case like Alex Alemany’s is that of “commercial painter”, with an implicit pejorative resonance.
Alex Alemany is able to relativize these sordid considerations because he has a deep knowledge of art history, lives as a “commercial painter” without feeling ashamed, nor considering the practice of his profession a desadorant for art. He thoroughly knows his craft and practices it with serenity and mastery of techniques. And at the same time he is aware of the crutches on which the market is held, and which today translate into the victory of promotion and the marketing over values and knowledge.
