Completely autonomous
Armando Fragale in conversation with Gary Cummiskey
Armando Fragale is a multifaceted artist born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1985. He is a painter, illustrator, filmmaker, actor, musician, writer, poet, designer, and producer who works in various mediums. He developed the artistic technique called Drivage and founded the art movement Openism. He has shown his work all over the world and has also collaborated with a wide array of artists in various art forms. Notable exhibitions he has been involved in have been Cosmic Unity: Occult Art and Music in Latin America in New York, International Surrealism Exhibition in Cairo/Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus: The Liminal and the Marvellous, in Dublin. He also runs a record label Wraith Productions, which he started in 2005.
I believe you were already drawing when you were a child. Do you remember when you first started? Have you had any formal art training?
It all came about so early on as a child, and it all started with drawing from the moment I picked up a pencil. I’ve had formal art training at university, but I chose my own path in all of this with what I do, so I consider myself a self-taught artist.
You have a strong interest in pre-Colombian art, but I have also detected a similarity of imagery in your work to that of Voodoo glyphs. Do you feel an affinity with the idea of the artist as shaman?
These all come through in the imagery as an atavistic channel in my work, it gets pulled in from that state and is manifested. I have a real interest in the cultures you mention, including ancient Egypt, ancient Sumer, and so many other civilizations. I knew from day one that the artist works as a shaman.
Surrealism also seems to be an influence in your work, but more Mexican surrealism than European – particularly Leonora Carrington. Why does her work appeal to you?
I’ve been very much fond of Mexican Surrealism but it all started for me in the beginning with my introduction to European surrealism mostly, artists and visionary thinkers such as André Breton and Philippe Soupault, as well as Eileen Agar and Meret Oppenheim. Since the day I discovered her work, Leonora has been an inspiration to me. I constantly felt the energy transcending through her work and it magnetized me. This is something I also experienced at an early age when meeting Eartha Kitt.
Do you get inspiration from the natural world – such as rock or tree formations?
I especially find inspiration through the frequencies in the natural world. And my belief is it all works together, is interconnected whether it is a rock, a tree, a spring, the formations gathered, a complete morphology and it plays into the world of my work.
What medium do you generally work in? Your work tends to be either black and white, or coloured acrylics on black cardboard. What is your process when making art?
To manifest, I utilize anything and everything at the fingertips. It can be a pencil on canvas or paint on glass, I have free rein in the sense of what route I will take with the work. The black and white drawings were earlier incarnations that spanned through my whole career. The coloured acrylics on black cardboard are sort of a series of works called The Black Period. My process is completely autonomous. I am in a channelled state when I work and what is meant to come through will and gets manifested. It all gets pulled from an atavistic point and is alchemically aligned and by how that will be orchestrated to the voyeur.
You said you created a movement called Openism – please tell us about this.
Openism is based on the creative process and by how we manifest art through the mind and the spirit, how to keep everything open in every function of the creative processes and to have no limits or restraints on the one who the creator of that vision, it is totally a boundless way to create. And essentially, to never have a beautifully dreamed-up vision to be tainted by any means. A good reference would be to think of Surrealism and how the Surrealists embraced the subconscious, how it was very free and open in the creational aspects for all the artists involved and how it opened doors and new views. One thought that always stuck with me was that Man Ray wanted to see artists take Surrealism but not follow it, but to understand it and opened new doors to take it further. I found that most inspirational and I believe he was right, we need more of these doors to open up in the arts and to take it to new heights. I also developed an artistic technique called Drivage, which is to create a work of art while the human body is in motion. To get a visual picture of its under-workings, think of someone attached to a car while they are holding a canvas and a paintbrush, wet with red paint, directly touching the canvas, as they move in motion with the force of the vehicle ‒ that is the magic of Drivage.
You also have a deep interest in experimental cinema, with filmmakers such as Kenneth Anger and Maya Deren. But you also like off-beat horror movies, such as those by Mexican film maker Juan López Moctezuma. Is it the magical or surrealist aspect of such movies that appeal to you? Have you yourself made films?
For me these artists were paving the way and creating very rich works of cinema, very realistic because they did what they purely wanted and didn’t follow anything else. They will forever inspire everyone who takes an interest in film or wants to be a filmmaker or even an artist in a general sense. For me both the magical and the surrealist aspects call me to those filmmakers and their works. I have made films, mostly shorts, I have a new short film in editing at the moment called Veiled Vision, which is based in shadows and features the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. There is also a feature film I am working on, based on a series of dreams I had and visions that came to me.
You also have a music production business – is this your ‘bread and butter’? For how long have you had the business and what kind of music do you produce?
I have been working in the music industry for over a decade now as one of my main gigs, so to say, yes, but it’s always been my passion and love, like cinema and art. I also run my own record label, Wraith Productions, which has seen a wide array of eclectic artists, and I’ve produced and collaborated with all these artists as well. Producing bands and also playing in them throughout the years has been a very fun and rewarding experience. Most of the music ranges from metal to rock to electronic and even hip-hop, and now I am dabbling in original motion picture soundtrack projects and have been working closely with an amazing Argentinian band called Farmacia.
You participated in an exhibition recently that was organised by The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus, called The Luminal and the Marvellous. There were some big names in that exhibition, such as Carrington, Toyen, Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern and that curious occult artist, Austin Osman Spare. What was the response to the exhibition?
The response to that show was absolutely incredible! It’s monumental every time Dolorosa de la Cruz envisions and does one of them with The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus. I was truly honoured to be a part of it this year. One of the best exhibitions you’ll ever see not only for the esoteric or dark arts but for art’s sake as a whole.
Where do you see your work fitting in with contemporary US art as whole, or is it something you never think about?
I follow my own path in what I do, and it fits as it already is, it is never something that crosses my mind. What I do appreciate about the contemporary art realm as a whole is that it is so vast and wide open to the voyeur, you’ll find all kinds of art and artists that lie within it, and I’m referring to worldwide, not just in the US. My work is there for all the masses to experience.
What projects are you busy with at the moment?
My feature film is the largest project I am currently undertaking. I am also going to return to my Mirror and Astral series in a new way, I’m still exploring the realms of the Black Period as it goes. I have exhibitions of my works and screenings of my films planned throughout this year and 2023. I am working at the moment also on a book collaboration with the artist Giorgia Pavlidou, so keep an eye out for that one. There’s been some meshing of worlds in the form of collaborations I’ve been doing over the last few years with other artists in painting and drawing, some of these will get published. One of the first notable ones is with the artist Brian Lucas, and I will be doing many more of these collaborations. I’ve been writing a concept on Surrealists for the modern day that entails the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky, Fernando Arrabal, Pedro Freideberg, Kenneth Anger, Aube Elléouët Breton, Penelope Rosemont, Françoise Gilot, among others, the next stage would be to make it a documentary feature film at some point. The multifaceted artist P Emerson Williams and I will be collaborating on some things in music and film, first will come the music projects and then he will be acting in my feature film, he is a visionary and I am looking forward to working closely with him. I’ve also been designing clothes and will soon launch my fashion clothing line which will feature my work.
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Lastly, I'm working on the first volume of a series of books called ATOM. It will be a monumental literary project once it's completed. It will feature creative minds of all forms within. It will truly be the first of its kind.