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This CPCC instructor uses a rare visual technique to create art that is 3 paintings in 1

Artist Alvaro Torres sees the world a little bit differently than most people.

The Central Piedmont Community College instructor creates artwork that offers multiple views, changing what an audience is seeing depending upon the angle they’re viewing it from.

What he calls a “multiview painting” is actually kind of an agamograph, a series of images that change at different angles. The agamograph style was pioneered in the 1950s by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, who lives and works in Paris.

Torres caught onto the style during a painting class he took while he was in architecture school at City College of New York. “I pretty much was instantly hooked on the technique,” he said.

Few others take on the challenge of the style, said Torres, who earned a masters of fine art in painting at the New York Academy of Art. He was influenced by Salvador Dali’s surrealism early in life, and that feeling of morphing and “things that don’t normally make sense, but there’s sense made out of it” meshed with what he was doing.

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Torres spent some time as an architect, “but it just didn’t work,” he said. Instead, he moved toward art education and became a guest lecturer of drawing at the now-closed Institute of Design and Construction College in Brooklyn, NY.

He later moved to Charlotte and started working as an instructor at CPCC in 2013.

“Art education allows me to do my own work, and it’s great,” Torres said. “You make your own boundaries... I just go for it and see what happens.”

Alvaro Torres was drawn to the style of artwork created by Yaacov Agam after he learned about it in a painting class he took while he was in architecture school at City College of New York. But he's expanded to other types of painting, as well.
Alvaro Torres was drawn to the style of artwork created by Yaacov Agam after he learned about it in a painting class he took while he was in architecture school at City College of New York. But he's expanded to other types of painting, as well.

He fully dove in to multiview painting when he moved to Huntersville and set up a larger studio space where he could shut himself away from interruptions. To create his multiview art, Torres paints directly onto aluminum surfaces at 45 degree angles.

It’s incredibly nerve wracking. I have a finite amount of patience, and sometimes I have to stop myself and say just breathe,” Torres said. “The middle images, there’s a dialog there that you wouldn’t think you would anticipate with either side being so different. In the middle, they become connected.”

Each multiview painting takes months to put together.

Sometimes I let the painting evolve on its own and not let it get me upset,” he said. “It’s a weird way, when you do this for awhile, you let the painting speak to you and not try to force the answers on your painting. It evolves, the answers come slowly.”

Museumgoers can see Torres’ work at CPCC’s Ross Gallery through Dec. 9, where he expects them to walk through “a dialogue in time.”

He’d like for viewers to start with on the left side of each piece. Then, as they move toward the center, they’ll see a shift that combines the left and right views, which represents a transition through the story of that artwork.

On the right side of the piece, the second image will appear. Then, viewers should move to the center again to zoom in.

“Mama in Paradise” is a multiview work by Alvaro Torres that’s on display at Ross Gallery through Dec. 9.
“Mama in Paradise” is a multiview work by Alvaro Torres that’s on display at Ross Gallery through Dec. 9.

Painting as activism

But multiview work is not all Torres does.

His Instagram account showcases painting tutorials of his work on photorealistic portraits of public figures such as former president Barack Obama and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

The tutorials take viewers on a sped-up trip through Torres’ process, showing how he blends colors and creates highlights and shadows.

He’s also produced similar portraits of George Floyd, who died while a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on his neck, and Rayshard Brooks, who was fatally shot by Atlanta police in a Wendy’s parking lot in June 2020.

“During the George Floyd incident, I felt very concerned and very sad at what happened,” artist Alvaro Torres said. The events pushed Torres to add a new, faster style of painting in his repertoire.
“During the George Floyd incident, I felt very concerned and very sad at what happened,” artist Alvaro Torres said. The events pushed Torres to add a new, faster style of painting in his repertoire.

Floyd’s death triggered the new pathway in his work, Torres said. Each time something new came on the news that struck him, he’d spend two to three hours making a panting and a video for his YouTube channel.

“I just started gravitating toward that,” Torres said.

‘Metamorphasis II’

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Thursday through Dec. 9

Where: Ross Gallery, CPCC’s Overcash Building, 1201 Elizabeth Ave.

Details: It’s free, and no tickets or reservations are needed.

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