Claudia Alvarez

Pronouns: she/her

Claudia Alvarez is a Mexican-American artist living and working in New York City.  She attended the University of California, Davis (BA 1999) and California College of Arts, San Francisco (MFA 2003). Alvarez is currently Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute and Lecturer at New York University.

Alvarez explores notions of memory, immigration, and identity. Through drawing, painting, ceramic sculpture and site-responsive installation, she investigates fundamental questions about human behavior, ethics, and power struggles. Her work addresses the way social, political, and psychological structures impact our behavior and personal interactions. Using traditional hand building techniques in stoneware, paper clay, porcelain and paper porcelain, she engages in the relationship between vessels, figurines and the body.

Alvarez work has been exhibited in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico and Japan. Recent solo exhibitions include Boy in a Room, Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center, Acécate, Centro Nacional de las Artes, Mexico City D. F., Girls with Guns, Scott White Contemporary Art, California, Silencio de Agua, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico, American Heroes, Blue Leaf Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. Recent group shows include Your Making Me Uncomfortable: Perspectives on Controversial Art, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln Nebraska, New Ways of Seeing: Beyond Culture, Dorsky Gallery, New York, Mujeres, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, New York, Migrantes: Claudia Alvarez, Jose Bedia, Ilya y Emilia Kabakov, Nina Menocal, Mexico City Mexico.

Alvarez has received grants from Art Matters Foundation, New York and Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, New York. Residencies include SASAMA, Shizuoka, Japan, The Northern Clay Center with The McKnight Foundation grant, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, Nebraska, SOMA, Mexico City, FUTUR, Rapperswil, Switzerland, and El Museo Del Barrio in New York City. Collections include Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Yucatan, Merida, Mexico, Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearny Nebraska.