MEET NEW YORK MIAMI-BASED ARTIST ALEXANDRA VALLS
Today we are continuing La Pera Projects Third Degree Series.
We have asked the same questions to some of our Collectors, Artists, Friend Curators, and Colleagues in the Industry. Get to know them through the Third Degree with La Pera.
TODAY meet Alex Valls, a self-taught multidisciplinary artist living and working in between Miami and New York.
You are addicted to…Coffee! And laughing. I love a laugh.
What art is for you? Art for me is therapy. It is a necessary way for me to release and express myself and my thoughts in a focused, positive and peaceful manner. Without art, I’m basically a bit of a bully and a bitch. In conclusion, bitches and bullies like moi need art.
Instagram account we should follow:Mine?@alexvalls.jpg @good_to_know.fyi also, @onlyindade (if you want to understand where I come from).
Name a necessary change in the art world: It took me a while to answer this and I came up with many responses! Because like anything in this world, progress can always be made and things can always fall into coercion. A change I would like to see is diversification in content and greater risk-taking. I’m tired of seeing people bend over backward to acquire or showcase the same 20 trendy artists. Loaded change because this requires great shifts in education, research, and sensible practices. However, different societies have different approaches to art and culture-making. If we narrow in and think of the “art world” as this westernized commercial sphere, I think the greatest change that needs to be made is the auction house that inflates financial value onto cultural items. This alters the playing field tremendously and favors the rich to be the arbiters of art and culture while disenfranchising those communities or entities who hold equal cultural significance but cannot outbid a wealthy institution or “collector” in owning what may be rightfully theirs in tradition and history. This is far from my own personal career, but it affects the art world on such a scale that ultimately affects us all. In my world and my own career or vocation, if you will, we artists simply need more patrons, and for those patrons to take greater risks.
The best advice you have received: Don’t text him.
Favorite artist or work of art: Saturn eating his son.
Tell us about your next project: My next project involves making more sand mazes but this next time I will have to use a drone to photograph it from above. The latest one i made was just a few days ago in Costa Rica. I’m searching for wet compact sands to venture to. If you know of some good beaches for this, please do share! Furthermore, I have an ongoing Curatorial Project with my collective, Good To Know.FYI. February we are presenting part three of the multi-series exhibition, A Subtropical Affair. This iteration features Omar Lopez Chahoud as a guest curator who now happens to be long time mentor of mine.
Your color: Orange. It is fun to say too.
Dream museum: Still figuring that one out! But when I get there, you will know!
Favorite fruit? Piña