Alex Morales – “Hoboken: A Retrospective”

February 16 - March 29, 2020

It’s not often the Hoboken Historical Museum exhibits work by a local artist with an international reputation, but Uruguayan artist Alex Morales returns to the Museum’s Upper Gallery in February 2020 for his second exhibit in a year when his work is attracting international recognition. In October 2019, he represented Uruguay in the 12th Florence Biennale contemporary art exhibition in Italy, and in October 2020, his work will be included in an art expo at the Carrousel du Louvre. He earned two honors from the international art magazine, DESTIG, in its 2019 awards: First place as Artist of the Year, Latin America & Caribbean, and third place in Mixed Media.

Morales has been creating art in a wide range of media from an early age, studying and refining his skills at the Museum of Fine Arts in the state of San Jose de Mayo in his home country. He earned a living in Uruguay and Buenos Aires as a successful illustrator, graphic artist, set designer and muralist before moving to the United States about nine years ago. He settled in the New York/New Jersey area and in 2016, he opened the Alex Morales Gallery on First Street in Hoboken.

While he is a versatile artist who works in a diverse range of media and styles, for his latest local exhibit, “Hoboken: A Retrospective,” Morales has depicted his adopted hometown in acrylic, watercolor, and Chinese ink with lemon. The latter are realistic works, with elements of abstraction and meticulously detailed work with a fountain pen. About 15 works will be on view, most painted over the past few months, with a couple that date back a year or two.

“What inspired me to work on these images was the beauty of the architecture, the color and diverse scenery of the city,” he says. He admires “its rich history, landscapes, cobbled streets and classical architecture, and the Hudson River with the fabulous view of Manhattan.” 

Above all, Morales says, he enjoys being in Hoboken, with “the customs and cultures, which are so different, that make Hoboken a warm and small cosmopolitan city full of life.”

Morales earned a reputation in Uruguay as a sought-after decorator for dance clubs and pubs. His reputation continued to grow internationally and today he continues to earn commissions creating art for commercial spaces, such as the large-scale mosaic mural, “Life,” that he created for the Orama Restaurant in Edgewater, NJ a couple of years ago. The massive, 1,150-square-foot mural and other artistic elements adorning the restaurant took the artist the better part of 2013 and half of 2014 to realize. 

Throughout his career, he has continued to produce fine art, exhibiting his work in solo and group shows in galleries and public spaces. Learn more at the artist’s website: http://www.ajmorales.com

The exhibit is supported by a block grant from the State/County Partnership program for the Arts, administered by the Hudson County Division of Cultural and Heritage Affairs.