Adrian Menichelli
The city is my inspiration.
“I think about cities all the time. Development, borders, scale, and growth are always before my sight. The inhabitants and their struggle, their way to survive and coexist with the city. Big crowds and how they managed to live together. The social layers and how each fraction looks at each other. “ - Adrian Menichelli
The first time Adrian painted was with his grandmother, Lina. When he was very young, she invited him to her shop to help her with some frames, oils, and brushes. It was at her place where he started his painting. His first painting was about a Chinese lady sitting while reading a letter. He remembered covering that letter with so many layers because he couldn't find the correct shadow.
Later in his life, he became an architect, which changed his life forever. He was fascinated with architecture and its power. The profession also gave him the architectural point of view to understand other artistic expressions.
He taught history at the University of Buenos Aires and later conducted an Architectural Design course. These incredible years were dedicated to teaching, giving him great memories and learning every day. At that time, he studied philosophy and art history with Marta Zatonyi at Ethos Institute.
Eventually, he met Paulina Miguel, who became his teacher and good friend. Paulina is an artist based in Buenos Aires. She helped Adrian to improve his expression with oil, gessos, and different materials and media for a year. This experience revived his passion for art.
"So I picture these cities, sketch them, and figure out their colors and shapes. Some are more abstract than others, and some are a direct perspective between buildings, like a snick pic or a glimpse of them.
I use construction materials such as plaster, grouts, tapes, clues, etc., any material that provides the texture I am looking for and adjusts my expression." - Adrian Menichelli, About his creative process.
In 2002, he was without work and had a low perspective to survive the collapse of his country, Argentina. He moved to New Jersey, where he spent most of his time developing his career in architectural offices, focusing on low-income housing and, later on, high-end residential buildings in NYC.
Currently, he is a solid project manager with several buildings built and more under development. In New York, he could experience the architectural ingenuity that he could only read about in Argentina from books and magazines.
He had been writing about architecture in NYC and other topics in a blog that he called "critical study of reality, the city, and its evolution" http://ny-architectura.blogspot.com/. Some of them have been published in "Guía de la Construcción" in both printed editions and the website.
In recent years he has attended the Nyack Center Figure Drawing, where every week there is a different live model, and he was able to have close contact with the human figure
http://nyacckcenterfiguredrawing.blogspot.com/ This experience helped him connect memories with my questions about himself.
"The consistent work and research are the best way to express these configurations; my series "Divided" and "Invisible Cities" that exist in me and through me became alive. They are now right in front of your eyes."