Astor Salcedo

Astor Milan Salcedo, Spanish-born artist of Colombian descent, is a skilled visual documentarian with a journalistic background and a passion for storytelling. He initially explored photography and documentary filmmaking as forms of his artistic expression, in a capacity that far surpasses simply being a spectator. Now Salcedo takes his manifesto “Art speaks to the soul to bring enlightenment and wholeness." to the next level. His current work incorporates this way of viewing the world around him in colors and textures. They are pictorial stitches in time, chronicles of life, sentimental ballads.

While oils are his media of choice, the surfaces he applies them to are diverse: they include everything from traditional primed canvases to photographs and further to the resilience of paper. This range is broadened by his personal favorites, unprimed canvases and especially raw linen, which give his visual documentaries a natural sensuality. Techniques include layering and the opulent use of color to create complex stories of great visual depth.

Astor Salcedo tirelessly pursues an existential equilibrium of the physical, mental and spiritual. His art is emblematic of this personal quest and his works present evidence of the human struggle in those moments when this balance is out of sync.

Astor's work consistently articulates an inherently watchful interest in historical and political events and takes its inspiration from nature, music and the people and places he encounters on his journeys.

He transfers this collection of cultural, contemporary, innate, exploratory, harmonious, dissonant and human impressions directly onto his surfaces. His work is both personal commentary and globally significant narrative, which in turn provides the viewer with an immersive emotional experience – at times soothing and sometimes brutal in its honesty.