FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jose Alvarez – Surfaces of Constant Time
?January 8 – February 20, 2010
??Ratio 3, 1447 Stevenson Street, San Francisco, CA 94103?? USA
Opening reception: January 8, 2010, 6-8pm.
Ratio 3 is pleased to present Surfaces of Constant Time, new work by Jose Alvarez, on view from January 8 to February 20, 2010.
Utilizing the themes of time, space, and consciousness as the central cruxes of this exhibition, Jose Alvarez explores ideas of probability, the notion of parallel universes, and the possible connections among seemingly disparate ways of thinking, perceiving, and sensing the Universe.
The artist takes his cues from the writings of astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, science fiction and fantasy literature, mathematical structures, expanding cosmology theories, South American shamans' accounts of visionary states, and the anthropological work of Jeremy Narby in his book DNA and the Origins of Knowledge. In Narby’s book, the author tries to connect with – in the words of ex-astronaut Edgar Mitchell – "the role of consciousness in the evolutionary patterns of the universe." Alvarez has embarked on a visual inquiry of both the fantastic and philosophical.
He has created maximalist collages that incorporate the exuberance of color, texture, and scale in an attempt to describe an experience. Employing his trademark materials – porcupine quills, feathers, mica and mineral crystals – and combining them with scientific notions of the universe, Alvarez creates intense images that act as catalysts that invite us to look more closely at the perfection and beauty within the world. By using beauty as the vehicle or the intermediary agency of our longing for answers and as a way of being in communion with, or in recognition of, something larger, more mysterious and more complex than us, Alvarez has found his way of communicating and celebrating the underlying matrix of our place in the Universe.
The central work in the exhibition is Surfaces Of Constant Time, a new eight-minute video in which an amorphous shape fluidly breaks down into smaller units of color, melding together in constant motion, regrouping, evolving, and transforming into unexpected configurations. Paired with a soundtrack by Chris McIntyre, this video takes Alvarez’s whole concept into a shape-shifting and ever-evolving engagement.
Jose Alvarez was born in 1968 in New York. He attended the New York School of Visual Arts and participated in the 2002 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He has had solo exhibitions at Gavlak New York (2009), The Moore Space, Miami (2008), Gavlak, West Palm Beach, FL (2008), and The Kitchen, New York (2007). His work has been included in exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami (2009), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2006), the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale (2004), Visual Arts Gallery, School of the Visual Arts, New York (2004), and Deitch Projects, New York (2003). Alvarez lives and works in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This is his second solo exhibition at Ratio 3.
GALLERY HOURS: WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY; 11am - 6pm, and by appointment.?
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/IMAGES CONTACT:?
?IC?A?L GUID???I @ 415.821.3371
?gallery@ratio3.org?
http://www.ratio3.org