Alexander Charriol: Human Flow IV

French-American artist Alexander Charriol’s work may be “autobiographical, but it is overwhelmingly universal–a visual poem that tackles the entangled nature of who we are.”

From the somber silhouettes that huddle together in the Tin Man Party to the prying eyes that gloss over the provocative woman in Stop the Madness, the figures in each of Charriol’s canvases tell the many stories of the human experience: love, loneliness, selfishness, greed, discontent, as well as the need for human connectedness.

Tin Man Party

Charriol’s creative journey began in 2010 when the graduate of Parsons School of Design decided to move from New York to settle, almost like a hermit, in the hills of Los Angeles. There, in isolation, he picked up the brush and started painting. “I was very lonely, I lost my friends, I lost everything,” reveals the 34-year-old, who admits to also having fallen weak to drug abuse at that time, thus the self-imposed isolation. “I was in a house with a beautiful view but no one around, so I got very lonely and then so I started painting a lot of people.”

With every stroke and brandish of color, Charriol allowed the “flow of feeling and energy” to grow stronger and fill the space that had been left empty. The therapeutic exercise turned into a creative one, and eventually led to an epiphany: “Humans need touch. People need to be together. Without touch, without being together, humans are not gonna survive,” explains Charriol.

Stop the Madness

This Human Flow concept permeated his work and persisted well into the creation of his fourth installment in the series, which was exhibited recently at the Altro Mondo Arte Contemporanea, Greenbelt 5, Makati City. 

Excited for the newest collection, admirers and fellow artists like National Artist Arturo Luz, Betsy Westendorp, glass sculptor Ramon Orlina, former CCP president Nestor Jardin, Ballet Philippines president Margie Moran Floriendo and Lane Moving’s Virginia Lane dropped by to show support for their artist-friend.

“Painting can be therapeutic at times when things are going great,” says Charriol. “But once when you don’t know where you’re heading, anxiety starts to fill yourself. No one’s telling you what to draw, what to do, so you really have to stay focused and believe in what you’re doing,” he reveals, adding that when his motivation is lagging, he retreats to his studios in New York and Bangkok. (Especially in Bangkok, where his studio nestles on the bank of the river, Charriol finds that he never runs out of inspiration.) 

Looking around the well-curated space of Altro Mondo, with the massive canvases embracing entire walls, Charriol beams proudly at his work. “It’s good to hear honest feedback. It’s a good feeling to get your art work out of the studio and onto the walls.” And perhaps also, he has realized it’s good to allow others to see themselves in the pictures. We are, after all, connected. His story is their story.