Brooke Alfaro

Born in Panama City, 1949. Alfaro graduated as an architect in 1976, and between 1980 and 1983 studied painting at The Arts Students League, New York. He lives and works in Panama. The main source of Alfaro's work is found in the marginal people of Panama, especially those from the neighborhood of San Felipe, where he lived for many years, and where he still goes almost daily to interact and work. Alfaro tries to expose the vital core of this popular urban sector, in all its pathos, beauty and repulsion, packed with countless ambiguities and contradictions. He employs a biting and deceitful sense of humor that destabilizes any possible interpretation of his paintings and videos. For the latter, Alfaro recomposes the footage, including the audio, a key element in order to establish unexpected symmetries and contrasts. He often directs these people as characters enacting inexplicable situations.