Alexander Dakers at Espacio Gallery

Artist Alexander Dakers had an exhibition of his works on show at Espacio Gallery in East London from 21-27 August 2023, titled Father and Sons. This is a commissioned piece about the exhibition.

The artist with his works at the exhibition.

Alexander Dakers’ painting styles are so diverse that you could easily walk into his show and mistake it for a group exhibition, as a colourful landscape featuring bright colours and a blazing sun faces off with the distressing image of a blood soaked Syrian child staring at us as he stands in front of a pile of rubble that was once people’s homes.

Dakers leans into this diversity and he’s clearly an artist who is willing to experiment with paint whether it be the bright colours of a pomegranate or a flamingo or painting music legends such as Jimi Hendrix, right through to more abstract pieces - recognising that his own mood and mindset determines what he feels like painting on any given day. He’s an artist who is happy not rushing into finding one particular style, and will continue to experiment as part of his practice.

An example of one of his landscape paintings

However, it’s his deeply personal works that form the core of this show. Dakers recently lost his father, who was an artist and art teacher, and the two of them had always dreamed of having a show together. This exhibition is now the manifestation of that dream as the work of Dakers Senior hangs alongside those by Dakers Junior, including his own recreations of his father’s works in his own style. In fact he painted one of these responses to his father’s works in a livestream, a process he described as really tough and emotional, but also important to show how the channelling of his emotions goes into creating his artworks.

Grief can often be a lonely and isolating time, and it speaks to Dakers generosity and empathy that in having encountered a 14 year old Alex McCann who had recently lost her mother, that he decided to include a piece by her in this show. Dakers has a long history of using his own art to raise money for causes including Amnesty International and Cancer Research, and it’s great to see that his philosophy of being generous and helping others is visible through this exhibition. His work has been used to fund the saving of lives and it’s clearly another reason he paints on top of the joy he clearly finds through creating art.

The artist with his works that reference his Chilean heritage and the executions in football stadiums under the Pinochet dictatorship.

His art and his charitable work also ties into his family history as Dakers is of Chilean heritage and his grandfather Leopoldo worked closely with Chile’s former president Salvador Allende. When Allende was overthrown and Pinochet put in place military rule many people were taken to football stadiums to be executed and Dakers has shown this moment in a powerful grey painting highlighting how bleak it was. His grandfather Leopoldo was taken to such a stadium but thankfully was freed with the help of Amnesty International, and it’s the reason Dakers works so closely with the charity as he may not be here if it wasn’t for the great work they do.

That’s not to say Dakers isn’t also looking at more recent developments in Chile, as he includes paintings showing those with nasty eye injuries from rubber bullets used by the regime under the more recent President Pinera.

Grief and joy, the horrors of history and the beauty we see in the world around us today. All these inspirations feed into the paintings of Alexander Dakers. This varied mix of drivers ensures that his work remains as diverse as ever and that he’ll never run out of reasons to paint.