PROJECTION 009 | Tania Alvarez: Through Painted Panes

CHART is pleased to present our ninth PROJECTION exhibition, Through Painted Panes, a solo show of new works by New York-based artist Tania Alvarez. The exhibition, which features a suite of eleven sculptures, fabric works, and paintings, will open with a reception on Friday, May 3, from 6–8pm, and remain on view through June 22, 2024.

Tania Alvarez is interested in the biographical potential of material. In Through Painted Panes, the home operates as a reflection of the body, and by incorporating the articles for her residential sculptures—scraps of clothing, recycled food packaging, home renovation samples—from quotidian encounters, Alvarez creates a chronicle of her life, both timestamping the creations with self-specific objects, while also manifesting an autobiographical structure for viewers to explore.  Each mark, memory, or object transfers traces of lived moments into the artwork, allowing the pieces to act as a distanced self-portrait.

Window-like forms, devoid of human presence, are used to convey the artist’s experience with chronic illness and the isolating effects of living with an invisible infirmity. In an effort to connect around loneliness and the cloistering effects of our contemporary digital landscape, Alvarez has constructed works that can be felt, observed, and interacted with, offering a opportunity for viewers to relate, even if only subconsciously. By playing with psychological effects of scale and perspective, and depicting temporal or situational changes, Alvarez’s work creates a feeling of disembodiment, of being in one place and yet transported elsewhere.

Tania Alvarez (b. 1983, Seville, Spain) earned her MFA at the New York Academy of Art in 2017 and BFA at Pratt Institute in 2005. Alvarez’s work has been exhibited at Miriam Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, (solo); CHART, New York, NY; BravinLee Programs, New York, NY; The James Castle House, Boise, ID; Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; McNay Museum Print Fair, San Antonio, TX; Golden Artists Colors, New Berlin, NY; The Clinton Foundation, Harlem, NY; The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY; Delphian Gallery, London, UK; and Galeria Belard in Lisbon, Portugal, among others. Alvarez’s works are in the permanent collections of the University Art Museum at the University at Albany and the Boise City Department of Arts and History in Boise, Idaho. Alvarez was an artist-in-residence at the James Castle House in Boise, ID; The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation in New Berlin, NY; The Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA; and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China. She is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and currently works in Catskill, NY.