Alberto Zalma
Graffiti meets Street meets devotional, part new-world urban, part old-world Europe…Enter the world of Alberto Zalma, a painter, musician, husband and father of young children. We’ll hear about how he juggles, balances and harmonizes the various facets of his life and keeps his creative juices flowing.
Lili visits the combination gallery and studio of Alberto Zalma, a Santa Fe native whose work serves as a vibrant bridge between traditional New Mexican roots and modern urban influence. Alberto opens up about his diverse lineage—spanning Sephardic Jewish, Native American, Mexican, and Spanish ancestry—and how these complex layers of identity, along with his childhood in Santa Fe and Bernalillo, infuse his art with both recognizable Catholic iconography and deep-seated local mysticism. He describes his unique creative process of "collecting crap off the street," incorporating everything from political flyers to current newspaper clippings into his canvases to create a time and place narrative that challenges the commercialization of the local art scene.
The conversation also explores the duality of Alberto’s life as both a visual artist and an award-winning musician in the band Boom Roots, where his songs often echo the same cynical yet authentic themes found in his paintings. As the only active duty parent in the series, Alberto shares the joys and challenges of raising two young artists, even integrating his children's scribbles into his professional work. Reflecting on the profound loss of his own father at a young age, he discusses his commitment to being an intentional, present parent and how his legacy is built not just through his contemporary folk art, but through the intergenerational stewardship of his family and community.
