NYAB Event - Emil Alzamora “Soft Pioneers”

Emil Alzamora “Soft Pioneers”

Krause Gallery

This event has ended.

Krause Gallery presents Emil Alzamora’s second solo exhibition.

In his most recent body of work Alzamora explores a fragment of a possible future. Inspired largely by his
observations of technology, social media and diminishing solitude, “Soft Pioneers” delves into the murky
waters of the digital realm and its effect on the human conscience. As the title of the exhibition implies, the
unchartered territories of the future are those of the mind and spirit and of a digital immersion that is
shaping them. The nine new sculptures and installations, exquisitely sculpted by hand in obdurate materials
such as gypsum and resin as well as an exploration into 3D printing and CNC milling technologies, provide a
tactile glimpse into the ruminations and predictions of the artist’s both hopeful and alarming vision of
humanity.

The centerpiece of the show is a group of nine life-sized children. At once insular and protective, affectionate
and tender the figures in the group are gathered in such a way that the viewer, and the rest of the world for
that matter, are forgotten. Though the figures recall the forms of a more quiet and lingering Pompeii
catastrophe, their merging and blending into one another brings to mind the connectedness of today’s youth
and the shared burden they must face together. “Human behavior will resemble more and more that of a hive
or swarm as we continue to develop and use technology to link ourselves to each other; a sort of naturally
occurring collective willed from the bottom up.” says Alzamora.

Peering through from the rear of the gallery are “Ancestors”, two life-size disjointed figures, one male and one
female. Through the use of digital enlarging and CNC milling, they appear to be carved from a block of iron.
The rusted figures loom over the space from their all-knowing vantage point regarding its occupants, both
sculpted and corporeal. The wall mounted figures, at once heavy and light, broken yet contained, may
represent the ambiguities of our own recollection of history and the lens through which we see it and in this
instance through which it sees us.

“Pressure”, a series of 3D printed figures, stand as though in a military line up gradually reducing in
circumference from the originally obese figure on the left to a pencil thin remnant of himself to the right.
Alone in the lower vault-like space downstairs “More Pressure”, a CNC milled resin coated man, quietly stands
compressed vertically under the weight of a heavy and uncertain atmosphere.

-"Certain artists continue to demonstrate that knowledge of materials and, more importantly, of techniques,
opens doors to imagery that can’t simply be “conceived” out of the cultural ether. I am thinking of sculptors
such as Saint Clair Cemin, Kiki Smith, Pier Consagra, Martin Puryear, and others such as the embroidery artist
Angelo Filomeno. So add Emil Alzamora to the list.” –Lyle Rexer for The Brooklyn Rail

Emil Alzamora is an American sculptor, born in Lima, Peru in 1975. A third generation artist, Alzamora studied
sculpture and earned a BFA in 1998 from Florida State University in Tallahassee. Shortly after graduating he
moved to the Hudson Valley to continue his sculpting career working as an enlarger for Polich Tallix until 2001.
Alzamora has since exhibited and shown his work worldwide in various galleries, art fairs and institutions
including Pepsico World Headquarters, the United Nations Building, The Museum of Biblical Art (Dallas,
Texas,) The Queens Museum of Art and The Hudson Valley Center For Contemporary Art. This will be his third
solo show in New York City. He has major works in private as well as public collections and has had his work
reviewed by The New York Times, The Brooklyn Rail, El Diario, the Boston Metro News as well as many online
publications including Juxtapoz, High Fructose and Laughing Squid.