Thinkspace Projects is excited to present our debut solo exhibition together with Seattle based artist ALEX ACHAVAL ‘A Place To Live.’ Following our small showcase together in Portland, Oregon recently, ‘A Place To Live‘ brings together ten new works that showcase his distinctive voice in contemporary portraiture.
Achaval blends personal heritage, mixed-media techniques, and layered storytelling to create visually compelling and conceptually rich works. Best known for his signature split-image compositions, often featuring unique dual frames the artist crafts himself. Combining oil and acrylic with unexpected interruptions, concealing and transforming his subjects, resulting in portraits layered with depth and meaning, offering images that shift between themes of memory, beauty, and time.
Our interview with Alex explores his creative process, reveals his dream collaboration, and shares his weirdest or most unexpected inspiration.
• What motivated or inspired the collection you’re presenting in this exhibition?
This collection is primarily inspired by the natural world – it’s landscapes, seascapes, and changing scenery – while exploring both the subtle and profound ways in which human presence shapes the environment we live in. The body of work is intended to move as a sequence of dreams or memories, each suggesting the subject’s inner or past experiences.
• Could you walk us through your creative process from conception to completion of a piece?
Each piece begins as a digital mock-up in Photoshop, where I explore color palettes and experiment with the relationship and contrast between the two subjects. This allows me to refine the composition and assess how the two interact before starting the actual piece. I usually prime the canvas with a few different layers while sanding between depending on the surface. I then sketch out the entire piece before beginning the painting process. While the piece dries, I begin the hunt for the perfect vintage frame. Sometimes I get lucky and find one at goodwill but most of the time I end up at antique malls and shops pretending I’m not about to cut this beautifully crafted heirloom in half. The final step involves taking on the role of a carpenter by constructing a simple, modern-style frame from scratch for the lower half of the painting, then carefully fitting the two components together to create the finished piece.
• Are there any recurring themes or symbols in your paintings? If so, what do they represent to you?
I always cover the eyes. I’ve done that for a really long time – even before I started the half frame style that has kind of defined my work. I think originally it was sort of built on the idea that it makes the subject mysterious and almost as if their identity was slipping away. Now, I see the top half of my paintings as representing what the subject is seeing or remembering from their own first-person perspective.
• Can you share a particularly memorable moment or experience that influenced your artistic journey?
There’s been a few moments that led me in different directions; one in particular I remember early on that jump started it. When I was in high school, I thought I was living in the 60’s and 70’s, and I was really into that whole music scene (still am). I started doing portrait sketches of artists like Jim Morrison, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan etc. and from that moment on I just always found myself wanting to paint portraits and be a portrait artist. Nowadays I’m just half a portrait artist. Another defining moment later was in 2015 when I was about 28. I landed in a space in the historic Pike Place Market in Seattle where I had an open studio/gallery. It completely transformed my life and allowed me to step out of my comfort zone, sell and talk about my work while painting, and always have a place to display my pieces. I moved around the market for 6 years and ended up having three different spaces before making the hard decision to give it up after deciding to move to Los Angeles in 2022.
• Are there any specific artists, movements, or periods in art history that have significantly influenced your work?
Early on, I was really obsessed with surrealism, specifically Dali, Frida, and Magritte. I started doing surreal types of pieces mixed with collage for a brief period which led to impressionist and abstract mixed with portrait painting. One of the things that catches my eye the most about other artists’ work, even if it’s nothing close to my own, is the use of someone’s color palette.
It’s hard to pinpoint all of the specific contemporary artists that had significant influences on my work because there’s just too many; but I do remember being really inspired by Jenn Mann’s use of color early on. Also, Erik Jones inspired me a lot with his way of blending expressive brushwork and shapes with intricate detail.
• If you could collaborate with any artists in any sort of medium (i.e. movies, music, painting) who would you collaborate with, and what would you be making?
I’ve always wished I was musically talented, but I think that music really is one of those things that you’re either born with or you’re not. So, if I could, I would love to collaborate on an album cover with one of my favorite bands, Nation of Language (if you’re reading this – hit me up!).
• How do you approach the naming of your pieces, and what significance do titles hold for you?
This is something I either think way too hard about, or I just look at the piece, and it instantly comes to me. Lately I’ve been looking deeper into the quiet parts of the piece, uncovering layers of other meanings it has to reveal. I think having a strong name attached to the piece can make it more impactful and intriguing. For example, one of my pieces for this show is titled ‘End Of The Daydream,’ it depicts a woman deep in thought with a house at dusk above her with two lights on. The lights are on, but no one is home. She’s physically there but lost within herself.
• Do you find yourself drawn to certain subjects or scenes repeatedly? If so, why?
I’ve always been drawn to portraits that are closer in frame. I like painting the small details of the face. Lately, I feel like I’m drawn to more rural landscapes, probably because I’m turning into a grumpy old man that’s about ready to live in a house in the middle of nowhere far from all this madness.
• If your paintings had a soundtrack, what kind of music would we hear while viewing them?
I think each piece or show would have its own song or soundtrack, but if I had to choose a soundtrack for my Thinkspace solo ‘A Place To Live‘ it would probably be traditional pop, old school jazz and swing like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Billy Holiday etc. Listening to it is like sitting in a softly lit room while the rest of the world fades away.
• What’s the weirdest or most unexpected inspiration you’ve ever drawn from for a painting?
I used to use found objects and physically incorporate them into my pieces, always searching for inspiration in everyday things. I once took apart an old laptop and threw the keyboard part on top of the surface before painting a portrait on top of it. At least half of my old Sony Vaio laptop lives on above someone’s couch – strange times lol.
