5 Questions with Eleazar Delgado
Eleazr Delgado at his home studio.
For this interview I ventured to local artist, Eleazar Delgado's cozy Coconut Grove townhouse. Upon arriving I was greeted by his PR rep Jenny-Lee, partner Josh, and their 3 dogs. I learned about Delgado's background, as an Architect/ Interior Designer, he transitioned into fine art to enjoy the freedom of creating art on his terms. We sat down to share a nice cup of coffee and valentines cupcakes and this is what we discussed:
Steven: How long have you been living in Miami?
Eleazar: 3 years. I moved from Caracas and I brought my house, and I was very thankful that I was able to do it because there’s a lot of history here, my history’s here with me.
S: Behind the Lights is a very thought out concept, as far as the history behind it. What got you interested in telling the story?
E: When you move somewhere you have to know your history, otherwise there is nothing you can relate to and attach too. You have to grab yourself from somewhere. I love history, so I fell in love with the landscape, the beautiful views, and the history is super interesting. This is actually one of the first man made places that I’ve seen grown that fast. This is actually completely man-made, this was a swamp. It’s fascinating what they’ve accomplished in 100 years. This is a Disney World, made 100 years ago, that’s what it was a playground. A super-cool playground. There is always history behind my work, I’m a history buff. It’s my background actually, what is there behind the lights is me it’s not history. So each painting has a little bit of me, these are characters I can relate to. There are some characters that I haven’t worked on, but they are coming for the second collection. I don’t think the whole story has been said.
Eleazar Delgado and a recent direction to sculptures.
S: What was it that you painted on, are those actual doors?
E: Those are actual doors. I started painting on canvas but they became a little small. I have a very heavy hand, so I needed a harder surface. I already had the doors at home, as a background for the canvas. So one day I took the canvas off and said I’m going to paint on the door and said let’s go from there. I’m opening doors.
S: What are your plans as far as expanding the story, getting it out?
E: I still don’t know, we have been talking to the city, we attended an arts and entertainment city meeting and discussed it there. Its moving along. I think it has to go now to a little more contemporary history so we can get some of the local gossip out. It’s the gossip that makes the story, if you don’t have the gossip you cannot make the story. You need it otherwise it doesn’t make sense. If you don’t know the whole story about Vizcaya, you cannot figure it out. If you don’t know the whole story about the Tuttles, it doesn’t make sense. And you have to find the relationships they had with each other, they’re super important. It’s about relationships, because from that relationship everything else comes along. A lot of people come to Miami and they don’t realize that there is history behind it and that everybody that came here has a history. It’s not an airport that people come and go. A lot of people stay, I stayed. We are trying to set up a history book together with my work (coming in November). A lot of the images are historic photographs that I mix with other images.
S: I understand you’ve acquired a gallery/ studio space, can you tell me about it?
E: Hopefully if we can get all of the permits, we may be opening in April. The space is 2703 NW 2nd Avenue, very close to Wynwood Walls, in the heart of the Wynwood Arts District. We’re looking forward to having events there and the grand opening event that will coincide with the Second Saturdays.
LINKS:
Eleazar Delgado website
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NOTE FOR COMMENTS: Do not flame or leave obnoxious comments, THEY WILL NOT BE APPROVED. Constructive criticism should always be welcomed by any artist, but don't be a d-bag, show some class. Thanks. - REVMiami Staff
[...] artistic vision. I had the pleasure of interviewing the artist recently, the interview can be found here. Please get over to Eleazar Delgado’s new space located at: 2703 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami 33127 [...]