Guest curated by Terry R. Myers, this first major institutional exhibition of the work of Chicago-based artist Candida Alvarez will focus on the artist’s paintings, presenting significant works from 1975 to 2016. Born in Brooklyn and based in Chicago since 1998, Alvarez has been involved with both abstraction and representation in her diverse work for more than 40 years.
Emerging from a home life that immersed her in the traditions of her parents’ birthplace in Puerto Rico, Alvarez incorporated narrative and ritual into her work from the outset. Her early work introduced a modular format to her paintings, creating diptychs, triptychs and other multi-paneled works that enable her to investigate the structure of the painting along with that of the narrative. Her multi-paneled paintings chart the development of a synthesis of abstraction and representation, predictive of a major dialogue in current painting. Alvarez received her MFA from Yale University in 1997, an experience that brought unconventional materials and the use of chance to her work. Her recent work has returned to canvas transforming her storytelling and building upon the diversity and complexity of her entire career – ensuring that this exhibition will be a revelation.
Since 1998, Alvarez has been teaching painting and drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She hashad exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Queens Museum; Brooklyn Museum; and High Museum of Art, Atlanta. Her works are in the collections of the Addison Gallery of American Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Studio Museum in Harlem; and El Museo Del Barrio, among many others. She is a recipient of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and the New York Foundation for the Arts Award.
Public programs:
In Conversation: Candida Alvarez and Curator Terry R. Myers
Sunday, April 29, 2-4pm
Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor North
Candida Alvarez and Dawoud Bey in Conversation: New York in the 80s
Saturday, May 6, 6:30-8pm
Claudia Cassidy Theater, 2nd Floor North
Gallery Talk with Candida Alvarez and Curator Terry R. Myers
Thursday, May 11, 5-6pm
Exhibit Hall, 4th Floor North
