The linoleum prints in this exhibition have been selected from two different yet related series Felix Angel developed between Fall 2020 and Spring of 2021.

The first series are related to the artist latest book ‘Tantas Vidas, Miguel” (So many lives, Miguel), published in Spanish by Tragaluz Editores, in 2021.

The idea was not exactly illustrating the fictional story, but rather add to it with visual elements that otherwise will not perform the same with words, although Angel certainly has a way with them. Words and images go hand by hand along four hundred nineteen pages, telling a story that Colombian writer, urban, art and literary critic Dario Ruiz Gomez defines as

“Sartre's contention that "behind all forms there is a metaphysics” applies to Felix Angel’s recent book Tantas Vidas, Miguel (So many lives, Miguel), and is widely validated when the formal approach that Felix proposes is directed to the invisible corroboration of that space in which we exist as the questions challenge us, and that realization supposes the beginning of a dive by the words from which Miguel ends up convincing us that his readers are embarked on the same dreams and in the same awakenings. The illustrations manage to persuade us that language is the image itself, the elusive verification of what we escape through the faces of others. The beautiful book is therefore that remarkable coincidence in the time of image and word, of reading that we must do from the imagination freed from worn and discredited aesthetic canons.”

In doing so the images show influences that have always been present in Angel’s work all along his career, such as (but not limited to) the graphic novel and “pulp” fiction (no the movie but the literary mode so popular in periodicals along the first part of the 20th century), a genre practiced by practically most of the important American and English writers from that age, such as Scott Fitzgerald and Agatha Christie. 

Encouraged by his editor (Tragaluz Editores, Medellin), Angel wanted for long time to write an extensive novel after the publication of a  couple of poem books (2011, 2018), a well-received short stories book (2016) he himself characterized as “homo-stories”, several books about art, and above all, his first novel “Te quiero mucho poquito nada” which has become a sort of cult novel in Colombia dating as far as 1975.

The time to write such a book presented itself in unexpected circumstances associated with the 2020 lockdown. In the solitary confinement induced by the invisible enemy, Angel reflected on his life in the context of what he had done up to that point as a multifaceted artist, and those who he cares about and has loved. It was not an exercise. It became a state of mind. He focused on what he deemed important, considering himself a lucky person because of the incredible people he has had the opportunity to meet throughout life, the emotional support all have provided to each other, and in some instances, accompanying a common destiny.

He wrote a novel about a man whose life was entangled in uncertainty since childhood, eventually becoming successful and learning the hard way about the complexity of love.



As part of the same examination, he spent many hours wondering about the value of friendship, and the importance of love as part of the existential experience.  The second group of prints is a selection of more than fifty linoleum engravings he created after the Miguel Series were completed (winter 2020) triggered by the input provided by both the novel and the engravings illustrating the story. This group of prints relate to the idea of individuals who in life cross our own path or join us on the trail. The theme may sound obvious but touches every human being aware of their nature. Those memories of people with whom Felix Angel have shared extraordinary experiences will be with him forever, in his mind and heart.

Ezequiel Taveras
Curator