Leonel Maciel

Leonel Maciel (born March 21, 1939) is a Mexican artist, member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, from the coast of the state of Guerrero. Although from a rural area and farming family, he studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado "La Esmeralda" and has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia, which has influenced his work. His art has changed styles from generally contains multiple elements and saturated colors.

Life Maciel was born in the small village of La Soledad de Maciel, located in the municipality of Petatlán, Guerrero on Mexico’s Pacific coast. He was born to a farm working family, in a palapa near the ocean. His family is of mixed African, Asian and indigenous roots, not uncommon for that region, the Costa Grande of Guerrero. He is a tall thin man, from family of tall people, stating that his great-grandparents were two meters tall or taller. One of these was Margarita Romero, called Negra Margarita who was African-indigenous ethnicity. His father also taught him to appreciate literature and he is fond of Hispanic-American literature and authors such as Alejo Carpentier, Pablo Neruda and Miguel Angel Asturias, which has affected his artistry.

In 2007 he worked on a project to document the cuisine of his native region which inspired a number of paintings. the Museo de la Ciudad de México (2003), Museo Mural Diego Rivera (2011) and the Museo Nacional de San Carlos in 2011.

His important collective exhibitions include “Art-Expo” in New York, Erótica ’82 at the Galería José Clemente Orozco and Contemporary Mexican Painters at the Picasso Museum in Antibes, France. In 2007 his home municipality had a ceremony to honor him.

Artistry Maciel began his artistic career in the 1950, and like others of the Generación de la Ruptura, decided to abandon muralism for liberty of expression. Raúl Anguiano classified him as “one of the greats” calling him one of his disciples.

Maciel defines himself as a hedonistic painter believing that, suffering should not rule human existence, but rather eroticism, celebration, play, laughter or, in other words, the sheer joy of living. He tried to transmit this through his painting. He is quoted as saying “What is beautiful in life sometimes is expressed with color, other times with movement and in some cases by means of objects, plants and animals.” Even generally serious topics can have elements of irony. Maciel did a series based on the Passion of Christ. But the images are not always solemn as in traditional depictions.

His works generally contain a number of elements, often in saturated colors which are related to magical realism. Maciel has changed styles frequently and sometimes abruptly, with works showing African influence, others of a very traditional and academic style and ones using symbolic coloring and even hyper-realism. One reason for this is his travel experience, for example the inclusion of Asian elements is work after traveling there in the 1990s. His work varies from abstract to figurative, with his academic training apparent in his experimentation with materials.