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Diana Yesenia Alvarado (born 1992) is a Chicana artist. [1] Alvarado utilizes the medium of ceramics to express her Mexican heritage and recall her childhood in Los Angeles. [2]
Alvarado was born in 1992 and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her parents at a young age would separate, mainly living with her mother in Southeast LA and visiting her father between East and South LA. [3] Alvarado grew a passion for film and photography in high school, later attending community college to take art class and eventually would transfer to California State University, Long Beach. [2]
Alvarado’s ceramic creations draws heavily from Mexican culture, as Yves B. Golden notes the similarities between her pieces and traditional recuerdos. [3] Additionally, the cartoonish figures with bright, colorful appearances that Alvarado creates are often likened to the visual elements of Los Angeles, such as “hand-painted characters on the side of liquor and grocery stores, [and] the multi-colored lettering on the window of the party supply store.” [2] Alvarado and others come from a wave of emerging artists in ceramics from LA, similar to a previous wave of the 1950s that changed how ceramics were viewed. [3] Alvarado is committed to allowing open interpretation of her art pieces and discusses how her surroundings influence the meaning of her work. [3] In an interview with Carhartt Work In Progress, Alvarado describes her working environment, her studio located in her grandmother's garage. [3] In this same interview, Alvarado talks about the process of working with clay, revealing the depth and significance of her practice. [3] In another interview with Amadeus Mag, Alvarado emphasizes how working with ceramics and creating 3-Dimensional art pieces has been both challenging and fulfilling for her expression. [2] Additionally, Alvarado opens up about her thought process behind selecting colors for her art work and insights on her approach towards the application of glaze. [2]
Alvarado was featured in her first show in early 2018 in Los Angeles; in the years since most of her shows have centered around LA, yet she has also been featured in exhibitions in New York, Madrid, and Stockholm. [4] Alvarado has had 18 exhibitions in the past five years and has collaborated with artists like Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. and Jaime Muñoz. [5]
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