Alonso Leon-Velarde
Alonso Leon-Velarde's work combines elements of personal history, science fiction, and contemporary subjects, invoking the idea of a pictorial symbol, as an after-image or residue of Latin American metropolitan life.
The paintings and drawings merge themes of loss and defeat with expressions of celebration and resilience; functioning as metaphors for inherited modalities of confrontation, and syncretism. The paintings look to integrate material, using an adaptive semiotic logic, that is associative rather than descriptive.
The built surfaces are visible evidence of residue, the speed of execution, and the slowness of sedimentation. The pentimento looks to integrate the picture as a painted gesture, in which sharp, organic and voluptuous movements find their place at the center of the work.
The action happens at the periphery of the form, sometimes erecting itself against the edges of the canvas. Using a somewhat forensic approach, the artist considers the ways western media travels and permeates South American visual cultures. Closely examining a landscape where magical and spiritual belief is grounded on faith, the work proposes an imaginative and futuristic alternative to understanding the intricacies of life in a Latin context. Posing a dynamic where an impression or preconceived notion of what something is changes.
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B. 1993, Lima Peru
Lives and works in Mexico City and Lima
Education
2016 B.F.A., School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
2014-15 Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
2012 Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Late Bloomer, Shoot the Lobster, CDMX, Mexico
2022 Twentytwenty, Ginsberg Gallery, Lima, Peru
2015 Another Notion of Possibility, 43 Lewisham Way, Goldsmiths, University of London, London, UK
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Drawing a Blank, The Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art London, UK
2021 VIVARIUM, JO-HS, CDMX, Mexico
2021 A New Art World, Guts Gallery, London, UK
2020 Good Weather, Ginsberg Galleria, Lima, Peru (w/ Rudi Ninov)
2019 The Economics of Movement, Performance, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (w/ Lotte Andersen)
2019 PERUENARCO AND CIFO PRESENTS: SINCRÓNICAS. HORIZONTES DEL ARTE CONTEMPORÁNEO PERUANO DESDE EL COLECCIONISMO, curated by Max Hernández Calvo, El Instante Fundación, Madrid (ES)
2016 Ellipse, Galerie Remise, Berlin, Germany Angelika Studios, High Wycombe, UK
2016 BFA Spring Exhibition, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
2013 ART BASH, SAIC The LeRoy Neiman Center & SUGS Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Honours and Awards
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL - SAIC (24 January - Spring 2013 - 2016) SAIC Distinguished Scholarship
Maryland Institute College of Art – MICA (20 August – Fall 2012) Starr Foundation Scholarship