ARTIST

BIO

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Alexa Barboza is a Costa Rican artist born in 1997. Graduated from Mayrland Institute College of Arts with a BFA in Painting and a minor in Sustainability and Social Practices. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions in Costa Rica, New York, Maryland and Biening. And her most recent acheivement by winning the national award to Best Young Artists from Cazadores y Recolectores.

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She has also been involved in organizing art community projects in her home country of Costa Rica and in Baltimore, such as: De la mano con la Calle, a homelessness organization where Alexa led a photography and documentation project to bring awareness to homelessness situations. School of Santa Ana, a low-income preschool where an art improvisation and play project was implemented to build bridges between kids and art. Hogar Infantil de Martin, is an orphanage where Alexa led weekly art classes and helped with artistic projects as a form of healing. Union Baptist Head-Start Program in Baltimore, Maryland, she created artistic programs to support the topics learned in class through a visual and hands on experience.

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ARTIST STATEMENT 

 

Through constant experimentation, I explore themes around control and abandon in works that range from representational to abstract. The contradictions evident in our structured society, such as nature versus man-made, are often represented to express the varying dynamics of control that we already accept. The process of making the work involves media shifts from painting to drawing to collage. I allow intuition to guide the composition, rejecting all forms of expectations and norms of control that might come to mind when artmaking. That process is just as important and satisfying as the finished results.

 

I use canvas and acrylic, as well as found objects, to create 2D pieces, installation, and sculpture. Geometric shapes and organic loose marks are emphasized with artificial bright colors and a contrasting palette of natural, muted colors. The raw, organic essence plays an important role in my control, or lack of it, in making the work. Using abstracted representation of manmade forms of containment such as fences, buildings, and walls that trap the true nature. Trying to have a balance between spontaneity and planning: the process emphasizes the questions. 

 

Being conscious of the various forms of control and injustices in our society, I believe my purpose as an artist is also to make a change. Using creativity and art as a tool for social change, a very important part of my practice is being involved in various social art projects and non-profit initiatives.

 

Through visual and abstract representations, I decide to express the problematic dynamics our society is constantly being affected from. But I also use art to strive to transform and heal some of the issues that impact the most vulnerable.

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