Casazal Art
Jorge Peralta
Jorge started learning the filete technique as an apprentice of Miguel Grasso in 1987 at only 17 years old. Grasso was at the time the only filetador of the traditional immigrant neighborhood of La Boca, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jorge had taken it upon himself to paint a display window of a local business and a neighbor suggested he contact Grasso. Jorge worked with his mentor for 29 years until Miguel’s passing.
The apprentice training was traditional. Jorge started from the bottom, cleaning the workshop. With time and patience, he worked his way up to painting the decoration of vehicles such as public transportation buses, firefighting trucks, and other public and private business vehicles, a staple of filete work. Jorge is now a recognized expert in ‘retrato’ portrait painting. When asked why he chose the filete technique Jorge says that while it is a decorative art, when an object is decorated with filete, it’s transformed never to be the same.
