Fernando Alemán was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on April 13, 1968.
He attended both primary and secondary school levels at Colegio del Salvador. At an early age, he showed an interest in drawing, but it was not until later that he developed a real passion for art.
His mother and his maternal aunt, both of whom had studied Fine Arts, fostered his strong liking for capturing scenes and helped him to take that first step into the world of painting.

During his teenage years, Alemán produced his first works, which he invariably gave to relatives and friends as presents. In the meantime, he sold paintings on clothes and started studying Graphic Design at the Escuela Panamericana de Arte. In 1996, he worked as a designer at B.A. Art Design.

He studied martial arts for over eight years and devoted a great deal of his time to Afro-Cuban percussion, a passion he shared with his percussion students and his friends from the Rumba group. He inherited this musical trend from his father, who had been a bongo player.
In 1997, he travelled to Cuba in order to take individual percussion lessons from Justo Pelladito (National Band of Cuban Folk Music), and it was then that he acquired- and stored for the rest of his life- the knowledge and secret codes of the Yoruba religion (Santeria), which he adopted. This creed, which originated in Nigeria over 4000 years ago, became the Inspirational Muse for all his work.
For over eighteen years, he had a place within Plaza Francia (France Square), where every Sunday, he and roughly ten other musicians used to get together to play drums, constituting Argentina's only Open Rumba. Prominent national and international percussionists who visited them there expressed great admiration for their artistry and, on innumerable occasions, invited Alemán to be part of different musical groups.
In 2002, because of hearing damage, he was forced to give up percussion, and the use of ear protection became indispensable in order that he could continue working as a tattooist. After that incident, he dedicated all his creative capacity to painting, drawing and sculpture.

It was in 1990 that he first became interested in tattooing. In 1991, he went to Buzios (Brazil), where he perfected this technique, and before long, he grew into one of the pioneers of tattoo art in our country.
Alemán opened his own tattoo studio at the unconventional Galería Bond Street, where he still works; and for seventeen years, he has won praise from both colleagues and tattoo fans.
In 2002, he was awarded First Prize in Drawing at the I Convención Internacional de Tatuajes (I International Tattoo Convention) in Argentina, where he also won Second Prize in the "Back Tattoo" category.

Despite his achievements in the world of tattoo art - and notwithstanding national and international recognition-, Fernando Alemán never dampened his enthusiasm for pencil art, in which he developed a realistic style, and consequently, he started to combine painting with the job of tattooer. It was a hard period in the artist's life, since he did not have as much time as he would have liked for what was his true vocation.

Some drawings dating from the first phase of his training show a strong inclination towards realism, but, logically, they still do not have the personal stamp that characterizes a full-grown artist's work.
Those drawings are a harbinger of what we see in his present works.
His thirst for instruction and growth led him to study Visual Arts at the Instituto Universitario Nacional de Artes (IUNA), where he enrolled for drawing, painting and sculpture courses. Later on, he expanded his knowledge by taking private classes.

At this new stage, much of the theme of his work (in tattooing as well as in painting) is inspired by his deep passion for primitive cultures and anthropological research, which was aroused by his experiences in Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. Alemán has built up a wealth of knowledge over these years and with no doubt, he is on his way to reaching his full potential as an artist.

A tattooer, a musician and a lover of foreign cultures, he is charismatic and controversial; but above all, Alemán is a painting enthusiast, a complete artist and one of Argentina's most promising talents.
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Through these means, the artist not only rouses the spectator's curiosity, but captures his attention because of the unusualness of the thematic content. He conveys a feeling of genuine respect and admiration for those primitive peoples who are in a constant struggle: A struggle to preserve their beliefs and traditions and to avoid being swallowed up by another intrusive, dominant, media-influenced culture.

At present, Fernando Alemán is putting his heart and soul into his paintings.

As philosophers do, Alemán shows us "the Other", but this time, from an artist's point of view.
Other people, other ways of life, other customs, other rites, other skin…"

Amaya G.T.