PRESS & MEDIA
"[Portilla] both builds and excavates his canvases with broad swaths of paint, textured imprints, and scrapes and scratches, layering lines over drifting expanses of rich color [...] recalling Basquiat and Twombly-lyrical paintings that hover between pure abstraction and the evocation of unknown atmospheric spaces."
— Karen Sundberg, Artsy.com, December 2014
"Abstract paintings by Alexis Portilla compel and surprise. There's something about the quality of the brushstrokes, the layers of paint and glaze creating depth, and the use of forms that can conjure dreams of a cityscape that feels like his work belongs to both contemporary abstraction and the heyday of Abstract Expressionism. This is no accident-the impact is just what the artist is going for."
— Pat Rogers, Hamptons Art Hub, December 2014
"Using simple forms and creating swathes of rich texture, Alexis Portilla builds atmospheric abstract paintings that convey a sense of time having passed. Brushy areas of color suggest the indeterminacy of memory, while bold linear forms speak for the present [...] In contrast, he has smaller works in the form of his beautiful unusual pieces in oil and beeswax which are fascinating [...] [those] images hover in the wax, as if frozen in time, yet the pieces have a fresh, almost dewy look."
— Meredith Mendesohn, ARTNews, February 2008
"Alexis is a poet in space and a painter of original feeling. When I first saw Alexis Portilla's work [...] I was very impressed by his handling of imagery on such a grand scale. I enjoyed so much his treatment of the surface of the canvas, which had such a lovely glow. Each image had its own position, yet it spoke to all others extended within the composition. He conveys a constant sense of expansion."
— Artist Will Barnet (1911-2012), June 2007