The Price of Everything: The Art of Alvarro Naddeo
Their presence is implied. They’ve built gravity-defying structures from shopping carts, stacked newspapers, and plywood. They’ve hung laundry and left crushed beer cans scattered across surfaces, and yet the real subjects of Alvaro Naddeo’s paintings are never seen. In the unsteady piling of trash (rendered in meticulous detail) there is an implication of adaptability, of forward momentum. Some of these structures are mobile, piled high on tiny scooters or food carts, others have multiple rooms and repurposed electronics. While alien in aggregate, Naddeo—who has worked in advertising for decades—grounds his work in the instantly recognizable: a Coca-Cola sign, an In-N-Out Burger bag, a box of Frosted Flakes. This is a world that was once familiar—a hyper realistic portrayal of a dystopian existence. If we pay attention, it’s a warning.
Naddeo works in a multi-step process that starts in the abstract and ends on the page. “I am self-taught, so I have been developing a process for the last ten years or so,” he explains. The system is fluid, subject to additions and subtractions. At the moment, Naddeo is experimenting with an airbrush, something that may or may not be a permanent addition. He always begins with an idea. Unlike some artists who rely on a sketchbook, Naddeo keeps his thoughts on post-it notes and random papers. Once an idea is born, he transitions to the computer, where he begins to formulate the composition using 3-D software. “The 3-D part isn’t the hardest, but it’s the part that takes the longest,” he explains. “It’s also important to note that this part is just for perspective and proportions. It doesn’t involve color, texture, or light. It’s just gray boxes.”
From the software, Naddeo transitions to Photoshop, sometimes bringing in photographic references for elements like brand logos or lettering. After he is satisfied with the skeleton of the composition, he moves to the page, where he applies color, texture, light, and shadow. “I don’t study or plan out the colors very much,” he says. “I know some artists do study versions, I don’t. I just start painting and feeling and finding the right colors.” His medium of choice is watercolor paints, a material he had not expected to fall in love with. When he first began painting, Naddeo was still living in New York City and looking for a creative outlet. His apartment was tiny, and he needed a means of artistic expression that was simple and required minimal clean-up. “My whole artistic studio would fit in a drawer,” he says of his early foray into watercolor. “It was just a letter-sized block of paper, a small paint set and three brushes.”
While watercolor was a choice of convenience at the time, it eventually became his go-to material. “There is a tendency of a lot of watercolor artists to paint very ethereal and dreamy scenes; the techniques and themes can sometimes be similar or repetitive,” he explains. Eventually, however, he found that watercolor was tactile and pliable, able to express texture and depth better than some other mediums he had previously been drawn to. “With watercolor, depending on how much water you use and how you apply the colors, it can be very organic and have a life of its own. It creates a texture very similar to what happens in nature. I start with allowing it to be unpredictable, but then I go back and correct it and make it look how I want to.”
sometimes it’s more the irony of advertising, of how you can say one thing but what actually happens is the opposite.”
In addition to the medium of watercolor, there are some other consistent characteristics
within Naddeo’s work. His use of name brands, for example, is something that can be found in almost every painting. While this could be attributed to his work in advertising, it would be too simplistic an explanation. Inspired by pop artists like James Rosenquist and Claes Oldenburg, Naddeo does not just cram well-known logos into a composition; each seems to act as a multipurpose agent within the greater schema. “There are some brands that are recognizable and iconic like Coca-Cola, Lucky Strike, or Marlboro,” explains Naddeo. “I think the packaging and logo are super strong in their simplicity and use of color and I’m attracted to that.”
While aesthetics are always a consideration for an artist, there is also a plurality in his choices. Naddeo gives an example of a cigarette advertisement that was selling masculinity as part of the brand identity, though on the box itself there was a warning about impotence, fertility, and the dangers of cigarettes. “Sometimes I use brands because they are iconic and powerful, but sometimes it’s more the irony of advertising—of how you can say one thing, but what actually happens is the opposite.”
Through a careful selection of brands or taglines arranged within a studied composition, Naddeo imbues his art with a touch of humor. Though dystopian—which often carries an unpleasant connotation—Naddeo’s works are also whimsical. Whether it’s putting “the taste of success” next to a cigarette pack or constructing an entire edifice within a bottle of Colt-45, Naddeo injects an absurdist element that undercuts the doomsday tenor just right. “I think I am a positive […] optimistic person so I can’t only talk about the bad things, I need to incorporate some positivism or even a laugh,” he says of his humoristic tendencies. “I also use humor to make commentary and combine elements that take on a new meaning. It’s also probably something I’m bringing from advertising.”
I use some glamorous brands like Louis Vuitton that are supposed to signal status, but then I put them in the context of trash and poverty to highlight the absurdity of wealth inequality.”
In addition, Naddeo is using consumption as social commentary. In his artist statement, he writes that the subject matter of his work is “waste, overconsumption, and social inequality.” Though he is “shy” about equating his work to activism, he is passionate about art’s ability to influence thought. “If I am saying something, then I want to say something I think is relevant. I hope that when people look at my work they at least think about those subjects,” says Naddeo, referencing the social issues with which he is concerned. Here, brand names and choices come into play once more. “Sometimes I use some glamorous brands like Louis Vuitton that are supposed to signal status, but then I put them in the context of trash and poverty to highlight the absurdity of wealth inequality,” he explains.
There are also nods to gas companies like Shell, piles of outdated and presumably defunct electronics, and stacks upon stacks of oil barrels. Is Naddeo leaving clues for us? Can we trace the origins of this dystopian world back to these elements? “It’s kind of a game between myself and people looking at my work,” he says. “When you’re trying to say something in that way and someone understands it, it’s super rewarding.”
For Naddeo, the game will continue, though he can’t say for certain where it’s taking him. “I cannot say, ‘I’m excited because my next body of work will be talking about X subject,’” he says. “I can see that my work keeps changing, and although there is a central aesthetic, I do shift. I don’t know exactly how or what is going to happen, though I have a lot of compositions thought out already. I just promise that I’m excited for what will come next.”*
This article originally appeared in Hi-Fructose Issue 63. Limited quantities of this issue are still available here.
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