The Museum of Central American Art
(MoCAArt.org)
Alejandro Arostegui & PRAXIS Opening Reception
Sunday, September 14, 2025
2:00 to 5:00 pm
yuca with chimichurri (mojo), bread budding & punch
The ANNEX ArtSpace
290 SE 2nd Avenue, Delray Beach, Florida
rsvp: [email protected]
| Alejandro Aróstegui ( b.1935 Nicaragua )Alejandro Aróstegui’s work is pensive and still. His landscapes (lakeshores, deserts, distant volcanoes) and cityscapes are haunting. His still lifes (simplified objects on tables) are, at the same time, disquieting and serene. Recycling the distinctive gleam of the aluminum can, Aróstegui’s paintings offer the viewer shimmering cities and rivers, solemn figures and grave forms. His best work is both compelling and distinctive. He is one of Nicaragua’s most important modern painters.Aróstegui spent years abroad (from 1954 to 1962), studying art. He studied at Tulane University, the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida, the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and the École de Beaux Arts in Paris.The year Aróstegui returns to Nicaragua is 1963. While Beatlemania rages in Europe, Russia sends the first female cosmonaut into space and the touch-tone phone is introduced in the USA, a group forms in Nicaragua that makes a loud noise in Central American art. Artists, poets and intellectuals join forces to establish a meeting place where they can exchange ideas of social change without fear. They call themselves “Praxis” (practice, as distinguished from theory), and on August 23, 1963 they open their headquarters as the Galería Praxis in Managua. Aróstegui of Nicaragua and the writer Amaru Barahona of Costa Rica met in Europe. They were concerned about the political and social issues of their countries. When they return home they reach out to artist César Izquierdo of Guatemala. Barahona writes the manifesto. The group functions as a democracy and seeks the intersection of culture, all of the arts and teaching. Revolutionary poetry, ancient petroglyphs and the natural beauty of their countries, as well as the political and economic realities inspire it. Their motto: action, dynamism and a permanent state of restlessness. As naïve as it may sound, the “groupo Praxis” artists felt art is not just for the elite… and it must not be compromised by the end result, the audience, or the money to be made from it. Honesty in art is more important than beauty. |
Printing shop in Kendall, FL
