Strange form of life

About

'Strange form of life' (Extraña forma de vida) continues along the line of research and formalisation of his previous projects: the cultural influence of scientific knowledge and representation of the relationship between art and science. In this sense, there is a recurrent presence of biomorphic shapes stemming from scientific magazines and emblematic pieces from art history.

The show is formed by a series of paintings on paper primarily inspired by the travels of German natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt and French botanist Aimé Bonplan to Venezuela and other South American countries during the beginning of the 19th Century.

The project 'Strange form of life' originated from the painting Tropical Landscape by Edwin Frederic Church, which displays, with great detail, the exuberance of the tropics and some of the characteristics of its flora. This particular work allowed Álvaro González, on the one hand, to research on the interest in scientific explorations and subsequent representation in 19th Century landscape painting, and on the other hand, collate the iconography of the time. Works currently showcased at Espacio Alexandra are rendered in mixed media techniques such as silkscreen, collage or oil pastel, and structured, in turn, in juxtaposition with different pictures that refer to scientific illustrations or decorative patterns from vintage bookbinding design.

Some works are more spontaneous in nature, with chance playing an important part of the process yet aiming to render the idea of the tropic, the exotic and the primitive, while other pieces, in contrast, directly draw upon Humboldt's and Bonpland's journey on river Orinoco and the Venezuelan Llanos.

Álvaro González (Venezuela, 1979) lives and works in Madrid. An artist and art teacher with a solid academic background in architecture, he also holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the Complutense University of Madrid. Represented in art fairs such as ARCO, JustMad or Artesantander, he has held solo shows at Espacio Alexandra regularly since 2015 and other venues include Madrid, Lissabon, New York and Washington.