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Cruz Alvarado

Painter · spray and canvas

Cruz Alvarado

Aerosol does two things nothing else does: a hard masked edge and a fade with no brush in it. I build paintings out of only those two moves.

San Antonio, TXOpen to exhibitions and commissioned works

Selected work
A large finished abstract spray painting leaning against a studio wall

Interference

The current large-format series: layered spray fields where a hard masked edge meets a fade with nothing between them.

Painting series · Ongoing since 2022

A tall canvas mid process with masking tape and stencils still attached

Masks in place

Work photographed mid build, tape and cut stencils still on the canvas and the overspray halo still on the wall.

Process

Crates of spent spray cans and jars of caps on a studio floor

The material shelf

The crates, the sorted cans, and the jar of caps. Every fade in the work comes from choosing one of those caps.

Studio

Gloved hands laying a spray fade across a hard taped edge on canvas

Edge studies

Small format works made to test one thing: how close a fade can sit to a hard edge before the edge stops reading.

Studies

Finished canvases racked on edge showing strata of paint layers

Strata

The storage rack, where the stacked edges of finished canvases show every layer the front of the painting hides.

Studio

A large abstract spray painting hung alone on a white gallery wall

Solo show, Ice House Annex

The fourth solo: large works hung one to a wall, with the room between them this work needs to be read.

Exhibition · 4th solo show, 2025

Story

I painted walls for six years before I ever stretched a canvas, and the wall taught me the thing I still work from: you commit at arm's length and you cannot take a pass back. I moved the practice indoors in 2014 and took a studio in a converted ice house in 2016. The paintings are built in layers, mask, spray, pull the tape, mask again, sometimes twenty passes before one of them is finished. Four solo shows since 2018. I run an aerosol workshop out of the studio twice a year.

Snapshot

I make large abstract paintings on canvas with spray paint, masking, and cut stencils.

Known for

  • Large canvases
  • Masked edges
  • Atomised fades

Focus

  • Abstraction
  • Layering
  • Studio practice
Proof

4 solo shows since 2018

Most recently the Ice House Annex, 2025

Studio since 2016

Converted ice house, San Antonio

6 years painting walls

Before the practice moved to canvas in 2014

Timeline
  1. 2016 - present

    Studio Painter, Ice House Studios

    Large-format spray work on canvas.

  2. 2014 - 2016

    Canvas practice, no fixed studio

    Moved the work indoors from walls.

  3. 2008 - 2014

    Commissioned wall work

    Six years painting walls around San Antonio.

Ways to work together

Commissioned works

Large-format canvases made to a wall, with the scale and palette settled before any tape goes down.

Exhibitions

Solo and group work for galleries and project spaces, hung with the room the paintings need.

Aerosol workshop

A two-day workshop on masking, caps, and fades, run out of the studio twice a year.

Perspective

You cannot take a pass back

Spray does not lift. Every layer is a decision you live with, which is why the work gets built in masks rather than in edits.

The edge is the subject

A fade on its own is atmosphere. Put a hard masked edge next to it and the painting suddenly has an argument.

Questions

What does Cruz make?

Large abstract paintings on canvas, built with spray paint, masking tape, and cut stencils, from a studio in San Antonio.

What has he shown?

Four solo shows since 2018, most recently seven large works at the Ice House Annex in 2025.

Does he teach?

Yes. An aerosol workshop runs out of the studio twice a year.

Elsewhere
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