Addressing the ways in which social, political, and psychological structures impact human behavior and personal interactions, Claudia Alvarez (New York, NY) tackles issues relating to violence, empowerment, endurance, and what each reveal about human nature through her drawings, paintings, and ceramic sculptures. Greatly impacted by the terminally ill youth and elderly patients from past work experience, her painted and sculpted figures continue to reflect both their strength and vulnerability through the depiction of fragmented narratives as reflection of human conduct, ethics, belief systems, culture, race, assimilation, and displacement.
Alvarez received her BA from University of California, Davis (Davis) in 1999 and her MFA from California College of Arts (San Francisco) in 2003. Throughout her career as a maker, she has participated in residencies at locations including SASAMA International Ceramic Art Festival (Shizuoka, Japan), Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE), SOMA (Mexico City, Mexico), and FUTUR (Rapperswil, Switzerland). She has received multiple awards including those from institutions such as Art Matters Foundation (New York, NY), and Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund (New York, NY). Currently, Alvarez is serving as Adjunct Instructor at New York University (New York, NY).
Alvarez has had works exhibited nationally and internationally in both solo and group exhibitions at venues including Nexus Gallery (Berkeley, CA), Museo de la Ciudad (Merida, Mexio), The Observatory (Dublin, Ireland), Keramik Museum (Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany), FUTUR (Parrerswil, Switzerland), Centro Macional de las Artes (Mexico City, Mexico), and the Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center (Nyack, NY). Her works have been featured in books, catalogs, and periodicals around the world and are included in the museum collections at El Museo Latino (Omaha, NE), Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Ateneo de Yucatan (Merida, Mexico), Sheldon Museum of Art (Lincoln, NE), the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago, IL), and the Museum of Nebraska Art (Kearny, NE).