Issue # 27 Alejandro Almanza Pereda
Curated by: Curro Borrego
Common Abnormalities In The Near Future / 10:30 min HD video, 2015-2021
Underwater Drama
A common thread within all of Alejandro Almanza Pereda’s (Mexico City, 1977) practice is the sculptural nature of his work, even when he steps out of his comfort zone to explore different mediums. A distinct but consistent brew of aesthetic, formal and conceptual decisions exist throughout Almanza Pereda’ s culptures which often provoke pleasurable discomfort derived from an imminent sense of peril. While these premises have served as a common ground for his three-dimensional work, it came as a surprise how much of this translated to his underwater video and photographic project.
The new project’s main intent, according to the artist, was primarily to start dealing with a different set of rules when creating compositions previously bound by the earthly laws of gravitational forces. Working underwater provides unexplored opportunities to amplify the possibilities of Almanza Pereda’s composiConal and theoretical interests. The premise of this project is simple, revisit the Dutch and Italian still life painting tradiction through the unpredictable behavior objects manifest underwater thus, providing a new reading to the straighforward nature of still life painting.
The four videos created by Almanza Pereda to this day provoke graceful compositions in otherwise dull inanimate objects. As with most of his work, the artist provides usual objects with a newfound aesthetic force whose transmutation depends almost entirely on compositional decisions and in the way those compositions fall apart. While all the videos share this premise, they can al exist in their own unique universe independent of one another. This is more evident with “Common abnormalities in the Near Future”.
“Common abnormalities in the Near Future” works like an offbeat interlude between his first and third underwater works. It is a unique and necessary b side which contrasts the romantic nature of its b&w predecessor and the colorful beauty of its successor. Almanza ́s choice of 16:9 vertical aspect ratio enhances the vertiginous nature of his dramatic plot. He shows and embraces failure as a two-way street unbound by gravity. A chaotic cinematic dance reminiscent of Buster Keaton’s silent films. A dramatic classical piano works as our main chronicler guiding us through the chapter-by-chapter story line. With “Common abnormalities in the Near Future” Almanza Pereda unveils himself as the storyteller he always was. His static stories – three-dimensional works – have always just hinted of chaotic possibilities while his moving works show us how wrong we were to have even tried to predict them at all.
Curro Borrego
Alejandro Almanza Pereda
Born in 1977 in Mexico City. Influenced by living in different parts in Mexico and United States Almanza Pereda grew interest in how different cultures perceive danger and risk. Almanza’s endeavor focus on materiality concepts by challenging objects conceptually and physically in Sculptures and underwater photographs and videos. His work explores the culturally specific paradigms of safety, danger and architecture through the juxtaposition and pairing of materials and objects. These juxtapositions achieve a sense of tension from makeshift environments with specific connotations, such as fragility, value, weight and power.
Almanza Pereda has a Master’s degree in Arts from Hunter College, New York. He has done solo shows in different institutions like San Francisco Art Institute; Museo El Eco,Mexico City; Art in General New York; Stanley Rubin Center, El Paso TX; College of Wooster Art Museum Ohio. His work has been featured at the Istanbul Biennial, ASU Museum; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; Dublin Contemporary 2011, 6a Bienal de Curitiba Brazil, El Museo del Barrio and the Queens Museum, both in New York. Alejandro has attended the Skowhegan and Bemis Art Residencies program as well as a grant recipient of Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship , CIFO Grant Program, the Harpo Foundation, Sistema Nacional de Creadores in México, Harker Award for Interdisciplinary Studies at SFAI, Theodore Randall International Chair in Art and Design at Alfred University and the Black Cube Artist Fellowship. His work was featured in Art 21 close up series. He is currently a member of “La Rubia te besa” an Art band project. He lives in Guadalajara Mexico.
Curro Borrego is the founder of contemporary art gallery CURRO in Guadalajara Mexico. The gallery, founded in 2008, has participated in art fairs around the globe such as ArtBasel Miami, Artissima and The Armory Show. Curro holds a Master's Degree in Contemporary Art by the Sotheby's Institute of Art in London.