Jordi Alós is a painter born in Mexico City in 1993 who works from his studio in the city in a language that holds raw expression against classical discipline. Drawing on street culture, art brut and realism, he moves between the rough and the refined, and two of his small 2025 oils on canvas panel are currently available at Art of NOMA: Un Poema and Azu-cena.
Who Is Jordi Alós, the Mexico City Painter?
Jordi Alós was born in Mexico City in 1993, and he still paints there. The biography on his Jordi Alós artist page is short, but it is unusually specific about where his work comes from. Before he was a painter, he was a student of Advertising Design, and that training turns out to be the key to almost everything that followed.
The gallery describes his practice in one tight sentence: he works in a language that holds raw expression against classical discipline. That is a useful phrase to keep in mind, because it names a tension rather than a style. His paintings are not simply rough, and they are not simply polished. They sit deliberately between the two, and the interest lies in watching which side wins in any given work.
His references are equally clear. The collection page lists underground street culture, art brut and realism as the sources he draws on, and it describes his figures and surfaces as lived-in, urgent and deliberately unpolished. For a collector, that list is a map. Each of those three traditions pulls in a different direction, and his work is the place where they meet.
How Advertising Design Pushed Him Toward Painting
The most revealing line in his biography is about his university years. While studying Advertising Design, he realized there was a shortage of art in advertising. He also noticed that the limits of what something "has to be" and what it "ought to be" left a special space open for pictorial expression.
That is a sharp observation for a design student to make. Advertising is a discipline built on rules: a brief, a message, an audience, a deadline. Most students learn to work inside those limits. Alós seems to have looked at the same limits and seen a gap, a place where something less controlled and more personal could live. Painting became the way to fill it.
You can still feel that background in how he talks about his work, and in how the gallery describes it. A design education teaches you to think about clarity, impact and how an image lands on someone who sees it for a few seconds. Art brut and street culture teach almost the opposite: urgency over polish, instinct over rules. His paintings carry both lessons at once, which is exactly the tension the gallery points to.
What Are Art Brut and Art Naive in His Work?
His biography says he mixes art brut and art naive techniques. Both terms are worth unpacking for newer collectors, because they explain a lot about why his surfaces look the way they do.
Art brut, a term usually translated as "raw art", describes work made outside the academic tradition, with a directness that does not try to look trained or correct. Art naive describes a related approach: simplified forms, flattened space and an apparently untutored way of drawing, often used on purpose by artists who could paint more conventionally if they chose. Both value honesty of mark over technical display.
What makes Alós interesting is that he does not abandon discipline to get there. The gallery is explicit that his raw expression is held against classical discipline, and that realism is one of his sources alongside art brut. In practice, that means a work can feel spontaneous and unpolished while its colour relationships and gestures stay controlled. The roughness is chosen, not accidental, and that is what separates a considered practice from a merely casual one.
Machango, the Character That Took Him Around the World
Out of that mix of art brut and art naive techniques, Alós created a character he named Machango. According to his biography, Machango has become a cornerstone of his work, and the character has taken him to travel the world.
A recurring character is a powerful device for a painter. It gives the viewer a point of recognition across many works, and it lets the artist build something closer to a personal mythology than a series of separate images. For an artist who began in advertising, the instinct makes sense: a strong character is memorable in a way that a single image rarely is, and it can carry an artist's voice into new places.
The biography does not describe Machango in detail, and we will not invent what it does not say. What it does make clear is the character's importance. If you are drawn to Alós's work, the Machango thread is the one to follow as you explore his practice further, and it is a good question to raise with the gallery when you enquire about his paintings.
Why Small Oils on Canvas Panel Reward Close Looking
The two works currently available show the quieter side of his practice. Both are oil on canvas panel, both are from 2025, and both are small. Un Poema, whose title means "A Poem", measures 20 × 20 cm. Azu-cena measures 20 × 15 cm. Each is a unique original, offered unframed, with a certificate of authenticity included.
The gallery's descriptions are careful about how these pieces work. For Un Poema, the rigid panel support keeps his gestures measured and his tonal transitions controlled at close range, and the square format keeps everything focused. It treats a condensed, poetic statement as enough. Azu-cena is described as something more lyrical than declarative, a painting that works by restraint and pulls the viewer toward small shifts of texture and tone.
Small works ask for a different kind of attention. They are not seen from across a room; they are approached. That makes them well suited to places where people pause: a bookshelf, a reading corner, a hallway or a bedside wall. If you are unsure how a 20 cm work will sit on your wall, our guide on how to choose the right size art for your wall walks through grouping, spacing and eye level.
How Should a Collector Approach His Work?
Start with the tension the gallery names. In front of an Alós painting, ask where the raw expression is and where the discipline is. Look at the edges of forms, the density of the paint and how controlled the colour feels. In these two small panels, the discipline is easier to see, which makes them a good introduction before you encounter his more urgent, unpolished work.
Next, think about scale and placement. Small originals are one of the most practical ways to begin a collection, because they fit almost anywhere and can grow into a group over time. This is the logic behind our essay on living with fewer, better works: a small piece you look at every day can matter more than a large one you stop noticing.
Finally, see him in context. He is one of around forty artists represented by Art of NOMA, and you can compare his approach with other painters on the artists page or browse the gallery's wider selection of original paintings. When your work arrives, our checklist on what to do the day your artwork arrives covers unpacking, checking the certificate and hanging it safely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Jordi Alós?
Jordi Alós is a painter born in Mexico City in 1993 who studied Advertising Design. He works from his Mexico City studio in a language that holds raw expression against classical discipline, drawing on street culture, art brut and realism.
What techniques does Jordi Alós use?
He mixes art brut and art naive techniques, held against classical discipline. His currently available works at Art of NOMA are oil on canvas panel, with measured gestures and controlled tonal transitions.
Who is Machango?
Machango is a character Jordi Alós created by mixing art brut and art naive techniques. According to his biography, Machango has become a cornerstone of his work and has taken him to travel the world.
Which Jordi Alós works are available at Art of NOMA?
As of October 1, 2026, two original works are available: Un Poema (20 × 20 cm) and Azu-cena (20 × 15 cm), both oil on canvas panel from 2025, each a unique original offered unframed with a certificate of authenticity.