Fernando Alday (born 1959, Santiago de Chile, Chile) developed a visual language in which material is as important as the image itself. Old paper supports, weathered textures, and the deep, velvety quality of medieval ink form the core of his work. Each painting begins with a quest that feels almost archaeological: finding paper with a history, traces of color, fibers, frayed edges, and layers that already bear their own story.
The fascination with paper is not nostalgic, but intrinsic. For Alday, paper represents time: a surface that makes wear, touch, and transience visible. By working on it—with ink reminiscent of manuscripts and ancient writing cultures—images emerge that evoke the cycle of life: ever present, yet always in motion, repeatedly disappearing and returning.
In this oeuvre, the act is as meaningful as the result. Collecting, preserving, and reactivating found materials becomes a way to depict passing. Alday's works thus develop into silent time capsules: intimate, layered and imbued with the realization that everything that lives also disappears.
