Alejandra Laviada
Geometry of Space
September 7-October 1, 2017
“As with the rest of my work, these images lie at the intersection between painting, photography and sculpture. By composing and layering the images inside the camera, the photographic medium and process become like a painter’s blank canvas. The camera is, by nature, a representational device, but it can also abstract and reveal an alternate reality invisible to the naked eye.”
Inspired by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy’s paintings of intersecting geometric planes, Geometry of Space is a series of sculptural compositions created in-camera by layering multiple exposures within single images. The geometric forms in Alejandra Laviada’s vibrant color prints appear to be suspended in space, yet the images are constructed entirely without digital manipulation. As she makes each exposure, Laviada alters her vantage point to change the scale, transparency, or shape of each object, while simultaneously employing filters to affect the color of each layer. Because each photograph is made using film, much of the work requires careful planning, but the artist also leaves some elements of the creative process to chance. Laviada’s painterly approach to photography mirrors Moholy-Nagy’s, who, as a photographer as well as a painter, believed that “the camera should be liberated from its role of recording the natural world in order to create abstract pictures of light and form.”
Alejandra Laviada (b. 1980) is an artist living and working in Mexico City where she is a member of the photography collective POC. She completed her BFA in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and received an MFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2010, Laviada won the Photography Biennial in Mexico City, and in 2009 she was awarded Photo España’s Descubrimientos Prize for her Photo Sculpture series. She is also the recipient of the FONCA Young Creators grant for 2012–13. Her work has been exhibited widely, and has been shown in various photography festivals including Hyeres, The New York Photo Festival, Photo España, and Guatephoto, among others. Geometry of Space is Laviada’s second solo show at Blue Sky.