Description

Alejandro Pereyra, born in Buenos Aires, is a versatile artist.
He has worked at advertising agencies, been involved in producing television commercials, and has also engaged with music—but he gained recognition primarily as a visual artist. Pereyra uses a unique paper collage technique, creating his artworks by gluing together fragments of old magazines, periodicals, and newspapers. His dazzling collages mainly depict well-known characters from films, such as Black Mamba.

In Black Mamba (Uma), Alejandro Pereyra portrays the fictional character from Quentin Tarantino’s iconic two-part wire-fu action film. Black Mamba, a member of the infamous assassin squad, was brought to life on screen by actress Uma Thurman. Dressed in a yellow tracksuit, she raises her samurai sword— the legendary Hattori Hanzo blade—while standing in a sideways combat pose. Her gaze is stern, her eyes burning with the fire of vengeance. The background consists of cut-out images of the film’s main characters and rows of Japanese characters taken from newspapers.

Due to the nature of Pereyra’s technique, Black Mamba has a dense, layered quality; the overlapping newspaper strips blur into one another and merge with the figure. Yet, the protagonist’s athletic body still emerges from the busy background. A bold black contour runs along her arm, leading the viewer’s eye toward the sword's hilt, lending the movement a dynamic sense of energy.

Black Mamba is part of Alejandro Pereyra’s unique character series. The iconic figure in this piece vividly evokes Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic masterpiece. Falling within the realm of pop art, the work achieves strong visual impact through simple elements. Like the iconic portrayals of Marilyn Monroe or Jimi Hendrix, this image, too, has the potential to become a cult classic.

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