THE WORK

A tabby cat sits upright in a cardboard delivery box, painted in cool blues, its eyes wide and
fixed on the viewer. The artist's debut piece and his return to painting after a long absence,
a portrait that began as a peace offering and became something closer to a threshold.

ARTIST BIO

Alejandro F. Hernandez, working as alexgringo, is a London-based artist working at the intersection
of traditional oil painting and lived experience. His work explores identity, faith, and the human
condition, most often through animal portraiture.

PROVENANCE

Oil on canvas, 2021. Signed on front. Certificate of authenticity issued. Longlisted among a
selection of works for the Visual Art Open competition, 2024.
Not yet publicly exhibited anywhere. Artist's collection.

IMAGES AVAILABLE

CONTACT

alex@alexgringo.com - www.alexgringo.com

The Inspiration

A cat in a box. A simple image until it isn't.

This piece began after a rejection that had nothing to do with romance and everything to do with a cat named Maygan, who had decided from the first visit that I wasn't good enough, and never changed her mind. Scratched, bitten, ignored, every time. I painted her as a peace offering. We never got to the moment where I gave it. The relationship ended before the painting did. But the painting stayed with me, and quietly, so did the brush.

It became the first piece after a long absence from the canvas. The return wasn't planned. It was necessary.

Process

I worked from a reference photo and a quick pencil sketch, barely more than the shape of the ears and the box. The early studio shots show something I didn't fully notice until now, looking back: the underpainting started warm, almost peach, and I pulled the whole thing cooler and bluer as it went. That shift feels true to what was happening around it.

While I painted, I was confused, indignant, frustrated, hurt, disappointed, but mostly nostalgic for the good times. It was also the season I first started reading the gospel, coming out of the covid conspiracy period. A lot was unsettled at once. The box holds all of that. Confinement and threshold. The moment just before something shifts, when the weight of a situation finally becomes visible.

Obstacles

As usual after a breakup, the question underneath everything was self worth. But painting this one raised a bigger question I didn't expect. The ability to make something like this doesn't come easily to everyone, so I kept asking where it came from, and why I'd been given this gift. Whether it was meant for more than this. Whether I should be using it to document my own testimony instead.

The painting itself didn't look how I'd imagined it, more than once. That's disheartening in the ordinary way any painter knows. But underneath it was the bigger doubt, circling the whole time I worked.

Reflection

What I was learning from the New Testament at the time was that we rush things, and tell ourselves lies to justify the rushing. Stepping away, getting grounded, was what let the paint come together in the end, technically and otherwise.

I don't have a tidy answer to where the gift comes from or what it's for. I have a painting that started as an apology to a cat and ended up asking a much older question. It's still asking it.

Archive Record (Provenance)

TITLE: "A cat in a box. A simple image until it isn't."
ARTIST: Alejandro F. Hernandez (alexgringo)
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS: 18cm × 24cm (bespoke hand-finished frame, made alongside the piece)
DATE COMPLETED: 2021
EDITION: Original, one-of-one
SIGNATURE: Front of piece (his first signed-on-front work)
CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY: Yes
STATUS: In artist's possession
COLLECTOR/OWNER: Artist's collection
EXHIBITION HISTORY: Longlisted (among a selection of works) for the Visual Art Open competition, 2024 — not yet publicly exhibited anywhere

PRINTS (available)

Limited edition size: 50

Print source: Giclée — The Print Space (London / Brooklyn, New York)

Paper: Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 23×30cm with border

Numbering: 0/50 sold to date

SLUG: a-cat-in-a-box-a-simple-image-until-it-isnt

EXCERPT: A peace offering that never arrived, and the painting that stayed behind instead.

TAGS: cats, portraiture, oil painting, first piece, faith, 2021, Visual Art Open

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

alexgringo Opens First Limited Edition Print Run With "A Cat in a Box. A Simple Image Until It Isn't."
London. Alejandro F. Hernandez, working as alexgringo, has released his first limited edition

Giclée print run. A run of 50, printed by The Print Space, of his debut painting "A cat in a box.
A simple image until it isn't."

The oil on canvas, completed in 2021, was the first piece Hernandez made after a long absence from
painting, and marked his return to the medium. It was among a selection of his paintings longlisted
for the Visual Art Open competition in 2024, though it has not yet been publicly exhibited anywhere.

Prints are available now in a run of 50, on Hahnemühle Photo Rag paper, 23×30cm with border.
Alejandro F. Hernandez is a London-based artist working under the name alexgringo,

working at the intersection of traditional oil painting and lived personal experience.
His work explores identity, faith, and the human condition through portraiture, most often of animals.
For more information, images, or interview requests, contact:

alex@alexgringo.com - email or website form]

Gallery / Curator One-Sheet

"A CAT IN A BOX. A SIMPLE IMAGE UNTIL IT ISN'T."

Alejandro F. Hernandez - alexgringo

AT A GLANCE

Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 18cm × 24cm, bespoke hand-finished frame
Date: 2021
Status/availability: Original in artist's collection [confirm sale status]
Price £600

PRINTS AVAILABLE

Edition size: 50
Paper/print source: Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 23×30cm with border, printed by The Print Space
Print price / numbers remaining: 50 of 50 remaining £85

THE WORK

A tabby cat sits upright in a cardboard delivery box, painted in cool blues, its eyes wide and
fixed on the viewer. The artist's debut piece and his return to painting after a long absence,
a portrait that began as a peace offering and became something closer to a threshold.

ARTIST BIO

Alejandro F. Hernandez, working as alexgringo, is a London-based artist working at the intersection
of traditional oil painting and lived experience. His work explores identity, faith, and the human
condition, most often through animal portraiture.

PROVENANCE

Oil on canvas, 2021. Signed on front. Certificate of authenticity issued. Longlisted among a
selection of works for the Visual Art Open competition, 2024. Not yet publicly exhibited anywhere.
Artist's collection.

IMAGES AVAILABLE

Final piece (framed, phone photo print-resolution flat shot still needed), reference photo,
pencil sketch, two in-progress studio shots