Alejandro Olivero

The multiple bodies of work that make up the exhibition tackle the physical and mental relationship between people and their environments. Everyone is shaped by their environment, from where they were born, to who they surround themselves with. I decided to go forth with this topic because, as broad and simple as it may seem, not a lot of people pay attention to it. An environment is the physical place, conditions or thing that surrounds organisms. Throughout this exhibition I focus on the impact it has on people and how it shapes them into what they are. The creation of the exhibition was influenced by experiences.

The experiences that contributed to these works are personal to me. I’ve always enjoyed going to places and enjoying the memories I attach to them. To me the feel of the environment means the actual physical structure as well as the people interacting with it. Paying attention to these particular pieces of the world around me made me realize that, myself, alongside other people don’t necessarily pay purposeful attention to these interactions. Through my art I want to be able to show and tell people stories which they have missed by not paying attention to the small details in life that are around them. 

The ideas and themes I work with throughout this exhibition are people and their environments. The idea of portraying people and how they incorporate themselves with what's around them interests me as it's a way to be able to show how these people react and use their environments to shape themselves and the activities they do. In the real world, most people don’t really pay attention to these aspects of life and that's why I decided to draw my attention to portraying them in my exhibition. The theme links to my work because every work shows different people in different environments having their own unique interactions which represent a scenario that is either symbolic or literal.

The works I have selected in this exhibition go out of my comfort zone and use more than just the medium of mixed media to portray themselves. I have always loved using mixed media as there are no limitations. Having the ability to do one aspect of the piece one way and then another like details in another was a safety net for me. Due to this, for this exhibition I worked with the mindset of developing my artistic skills. 

The order of the pieces serve for both impact and a journey. The first piece, a man sitting alone in the beach with a campfire was solely done in acrylics. This piece works with a symbolistic environment where the smoke symbolizes bonds. As the lonely man is sitting in the withered campfire the smoke symbolizes the bonds that he feels tearing away. The second piece, Division, worked with an oddly shaped canvas. Adding this piece to the exhibition adds a standout feature to grab the audiences attention. The third piece depicts a silhouette of a man walking through a dark forest to a bright asylum. The piece cuts the colorful tones of the previous paintings before moving onto the next pieces. The next four pieces form a collection of digital photomontage that depict various metaphorical interactions between people and a landscape to provide a story. Lastly the polaroid watercolor pieces named adventure are experiences that I would love to be able to go through in the future either as a way to develop my relationship with myself or with others. 

All in all this exhibition serves as a self-reflection. From more abstract experiences that deal with emotions to visions of what I hope to be able to be shaped by. In the end, the purpose is to allow people to see how important these moments are from the sweet ones to the sour ones too.

demonstrate people impacting their environments to people embracing them. These reflect various aspects of my experiences and what I hope to do in the future. 

To me, the idea that people are mutually shaping and being shaped by their environment has always interested me because it’s such an important aspect of life that people don’t really think about when looking at art. 

Through the exhibition, I used different mediums to showcase moments in which characters/people are able to express themselves in their environments. Whether the environment adds a metaphorical aspect to the work or is just a place to which the person connects. 

I want each piece to communicate to the audience a story and hopefully even one they might relate to. 

To me, this is important as capturing these moments, at least for me, reminds me to enjoy every moment of life and take even the smallest things into appreciation.