Alessandra Torres | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 (age 40–41) |
Nationality | American |
Education | |
Known for | Sculpture, photography, performance |
Website | alessandratorres |
Alessandra Torres (born 1980) [1] is an American visual artist of Puerto Rican ancestry. [2] Torres was raised in Puerto Rico, and now she resides in Baltimore, Maryland.
Torres studied and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2002, [2] and subsequently, in 2006, she earned a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University. [2]
Torres' artistic productions (performances, photography, and installations) have been staged and exhibited both in the United States and abroad, most notably at Art Basel Miami, Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City, The Washington Project for the Arts' "Seven" exhibition and also its “Options” Biennial in Washington D.C., the Akademie Kunst en Industrie in Enschede, the Netherlands, and most recently at the BilbaoArte Fundación, in Spain, for her first major international solo exhibition. [2] [3] In 2014 her work was selected by American art collector Mera Rubell for a Rubell-curated show titled "Select 2014," an exhibit sponsored by the Washington Project for the Arts. [4]
She notes about her work:
My body is the starting point for all of my work. Through Photography, Sculpture, and Interactive Sculptural Installations, I explore the body’s ability to function as a mark-making tool; its ability to communicate thoughts and emotions through gesture, movement, and body language; the body as form; as well as the malleable nature of physical identity. I allow myself to be directed by my physical impulses; I have an insatiable urge to fit into small spaces. [5]
The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the United States.
Jane Schenthal Frank was an American multidisciplinary artist, known as a painter, sculptor, mixed media artist, illustrator, and textile artist. Her landscape-like, mixed-media abstract paintings are included in public collections, including those of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She studied with artists, Hans Hofmann and Norman Carlberg.
William Henry Rinehart was a noted American sculptor. He is considered "the last important American sculptor to work in the classical style."
Norman K. Carlberg was an American sculptor, photographer, and printmaker. He is noted as an exemplar of the modular constructivist style.
Purvis Young was an American artist from the Overtown neighborhood of Miami, Florida. Young's work, often a blend of collage and painting, utilizes found objects and the experience of African Americans in the south. Young gained recognition as a cult contemporary artist, with a collectors' following including Jane Fonda, Damon Wayans, Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, and others. In 2006 a feature documentary titled Purvis of Overtown was produced about his life and work. His work is found in the collections of the American Folk Art Museum, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the High Museum of Art, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and others. In 2018, he was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.
William S. Dutterer (1943–2007) was a Washington artist who moved to New York City in 1979 and continued making innovative work until his death in January 2007. Over his 40+ year career, Dutterer developed his own idiosyncratic visual vocabulary that often referenced masks, wrapped objects, the idea of exploring the depths, and the concept of the bystander from his minimalist work of the '60s. His work engages the viewer, encouraging us to consider how our culture and world events impact the way we see ourselves and allow others to see us.
Sylvia Snowden is an African American abstract painter who works with acrylics, oil pastels, and mixed media to create textured works that convey the "feel of paint". Many museums have hosted her art in exhibits, while several have added her works to their permanent collections.
John Lehr is an American photographer active in New York City.
Lowell Blair Nesbitt was a painter, draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor.
Washington Project for the Arts, founded in 1975, is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support and aid of artists in the Washington, D.C. area.
Gary Simmons is an American artist from New York City. Using icons and stereotypes of American popular culture, he creates works that address personal and collective experiences of race and class. He is best known for his "erasure drawings," in which he draws in white chalk on slate-painted panels or walls, then smudges them with his hands – a technique that renders their imagery ghostly.
Joyce J. Scott is an African-American artist, sculptor, quilter, performance artist, installation artist, print-maker, lecturer and educator. Named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016, and a Smithsonian Visionary Artist in 2019, Scott is best known for her figurative sculptures and jewelry using free form, off-loom beadweaving techniques, similar to a peyote stitch. Each piece is often constructed using thousands of glass seed beads or pony beads, and sometimes other found objects or materials such as glass, quilting and leather. In 2018, she was hailed for working in new medium — a mixture of soil, clay, straw, and cement — for a sculpture meant to disintegrate and return to the earth. Scott is influenced by a variety of diverse cultures, including Native American and African traditions, Mexican, Czech, and Russian beadwork, illustration and comic books, and pop culture.
Carol Brown Goldberg is an American artist who works in a variety of media. She creates abstract paintings surfaced with a reflective polymer. She also creates large scale sculpture and film.
Catherine Elizabeth Cooke is an American designer whose career has lasted more than 73 years. She is principally known for her jewelry. She has been called "an icon within the tradition of modernist jewelry" and "a seminal figure in American Modernist studio jewelry". Her pieces have been shown nationally and internationally and are included in a number of museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. She is regarded as an important role model for other artists and craftspeople.
Shinique Smith is an American visual artist, known for her colorful installation art and paintings that incorporate found textiles and collage materials. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Benjamin Abramowitz was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. First recognized for his remarkable contribution at age 19 as senior artist with the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in New York City, he is among the most respected Washington DC artists of the past century.
Jennifer Rubell is an American conceptual artist known for her participatory sculpture, video, and food performances. Rubell has held performances and exhibitions at Foundation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Performa, Dallas Contemporary, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Brooklyn Museum. Rubell lives and works in New York City.
Joe Shannon is a stateside Puerto Rican artist, curator, art critic, and writer.
F. Lennox Campello is an American artist, art critic, author, art dealer, curator, and visual arts blogger. In 2016 The Washington City Paper called him "one of the most interesting people of Washington, DC."
Ric Garcia is an American fine arts painter, digital printmaker, and curator of Cuban ancestry currently working and residing in the Greater Washington, DC area.