Open to the public: October 22nd & 23rd / 12-4pm
"La Belle Dame Sans Regrets"
Studio #314 at MANA Contemporary
Additional Artist: Keith Sklar, showing some of his drawings and prints.
CONNECTION TO PILSEN:
I have been involved in the Pilsen community for over 30 years and have lived here since 1999!
ARTIST BIO/STATEMENT:
Montserrat Alsina (b. Venezuela) is a multidisciplinary artist, teacher and cultural worker. She received her BA from Rhodes College in Art, Psychology and Education, and an MFA in Performance Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has a 200 level certificate to teach yoga and a Mindfulness Teaching Certification. She is founder of Colibri Studio Gallery, co-founder of Nahui Ollin Danzas Ceremoniales and 18th St Pilsen Open Studios. She has taught in a number of Arts organizations in Chicago including France W. Parker School and North Shore Country Day School both k through 12 grade schools. She has received a number of grants from the Illinois Arts Council as well as from NSCDS giving Alsina the opportunity to travel to different countries to do research and create. She has exhibited in the USA, Mexico and Canada.
The work I do comes from a place deep inside, from that place of silence, it is a dialogue with the inner self, an expression of feelings, emotions and senses, it is of the effects of the environment and of people in our surroundings. In order for me to express myself I need to not only use drawing, printmaking and painting but also incorporate movement, video, sound, lighting and the written word. Creating for me is like a breath, dancing, stretching, moving, making that first mark on the surface plane, using a brush, a roller, or charcoal; filling the spaces with textures and colors, and different movements emerge, like dancing on the surface, creating infinite mazes where the eye of the viewer can travel and immerse in a world of dichotomies, of wonders, joy, stability and chaos.
La obra de Alsina es una reflexión del psíquico del ser humano. Envuelve capas de situaciones complejas existenciales de nuestra humanidad que al mismo tiempo esta influenciada por el momento en que vivimos de cambios sociales y políticos. En esta selección de obras podemos observar un poquito de la maestría de técnica y expresión que Alsina domina.