Alfredo Arreguin was born in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico in 1935 and lived there until moving to Mexico City at the age of thirteen. When Arreguin was 23, he moved to Seattle, where he received his B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from the University of Washington. His life in Mexico and the Pacific Northwest has provided inspiration for his beautifully colored canvases.
Arreguin is a highly respected pattern painter, creating rich, multilayered imagery and landscapes, ranging from the rainforests of Mexico to the terrain of the Pacific Northwest. He also uses patterns and Japanese printmaking to create portraits of iconic Mexican figures, such as the artist Frida Kahlo.
Describing Arreguin’s work, Jose Luis Alcubilla writes, “he constructs a double reality: the one we see everyday, and the perplexing one that he offers to us like a profoundly vital feast of the earth whose expansion touches everything. In his portraits, therefore, Arreguín recreates a memory with which he shows us that life is a flourishing face.”