Alejandro Cartagena | THE CAR POOLERS
From 21/03/2014 To 11/05/2014
Alejandro Cartagena (Santo Domingo, 1977) opens on March 21, the new gallery in via della Rocca, 19 with the solo-show The Car Poolers, that arrives in Italy for the first tiime after the solo exhibit In new York and Los Angeles and the group shows at MOMA, San Francisco, Mexican Photography and Museum Of Contemporary Photography of Chicago, Public Works.
De Chirico Gallery changes place but confirms the artistic research toward innovative projects in Turin and often in Italy, both of emerging artists or with a stabilized career.
The car poolers is part of a larger body of work entitled Suburbia Mexicana which considers the interdependence of humans and landscape in the face of urban expansion. Although artists and activists alike have focused on the negative impact of urban sprawl since the 1960s, Cartagena’s work is unique in its preoccupation with the largely overlooked, irrevocable effects of suburban expansion within a local ecosystem.
This particular project was shot for a year on Monterrey’s highway 85 going southbound to San Pedro Garza Garcia, one of the richest cities in Latin America. With a bird’s eye view over the trucks commuting to and from work, Cartagena captures images of laborers carpooling in the back of pickup trucks – in a variety of different forms and positions: hidden and outright, sleeping and awake, looking directly at the camera and looking away.
Karen Irvine curator and associate director, museum of contemporary photography, Chicago, writes about Cartagena work: “Understanding that overdevelopment is not just a local problem, works hard as an artist to share his photographs as one clear plea for responsible, sustainable development in a rapidly changing world.”
Ultimately, Cartagena’s photos portray the resilience of humanity and also an intimate look at men trying to survive.
CV
WORK IN COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA, USA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA
Coppel Collection, Mexico University of Maine Collection Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR, USA
Joaquim Paiva Collection, Sao Paolo, Brazil
Sinafo/ Fototeca Nacional del Inah, Pachuca Hidalgo, MX
Fototeca del Centro de las Artes, Monterrey N.L., MX
Private collections in the USA, Mexico, UK, Spain, Canada, France
HONORS AND AWARDS
FOAM Talent, Amsterdam
PDN's 30 Emerging Photographers, NY
Winner, Photolucida's Critical Mass Photo Book Award, Portland, OR
Selected for International Discoveries II, FotoFest, Houston, TX
Winner Premio IILA-Fotografia V edition, Rome Italy
Winner of Street Photography Award, London Photography Festival, UK
POYI Reportage division/feature picture story, award of excellence, USA
POYI Latinamerica Vida Cotidiana series, 2do lugar, Brazil
National Grant in Photography, Fonca-CONACULTA, Mexico
Nominee, Prix Pictet Award, London
Winner Premio Lente Latino, Acquisition Prize, Chile
Acquisition Prize, Salon de la Fotografia, Fototeca de Nuevo Leon CONARTE, Mexico
Finalist, Aperture Portfolio Prize, NY
BOOKS AND CATALOGUES
Suburbia Mexicana, Daylight Community Arts Foundation/ Photolucida, March 2011 Identidades Nuevo León, Fondo Editorial Nuevo León, 1ª Edición, 2006, México
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
United Photo Industries Gallery, Car Poolers, NY
Kopeikin Gallery, Car Poolers, Los Angeles CA
Breda Photo Festival, Car Poolers, Holland
Festival GuatePhoto, Car Poolers, Guatemala
Centro de la Imagen, Festival Photoimagen, Car Poolers, Santo Domingo, Dominican Rep.
London Photography Festival, Car Poolers, London UK
Circuit Gallery, Suburbia Mexicana, Featured Exhibition CONTACT Festival, Toronto, ON
Flanders Gallery, Suburbia Mexicana (curated by Daylight), Raleigh, NC Museo de Arte de Sonora MUSAS, Suburbia Mexicana, Hermosillo, Mexico Bluesky Gallery, Suburbia Mexicana, Portland, OR Circuit Gallery, Lost Rivers, Toronto, Canada Lishui Foto Festival, Suburbia Mexicana, Lishui, China Centro Arte Paiz, Foto 30 Photo Festival. Suburbia Mexicana. Guatemala Museo de Arte de Zapópan El Maz, Identidad Nuevo León, Jalisco, MX Fototeca del Centro de las Artes, Identidad Nuevo León, Monterrey, MX
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
San Francisco MOMA, Mexican Photography, San Francisco, CA UNSEEN Fair, FOAM TALENT, Amsterdam, Holanda Festival FOTOGRAFÍA, Premio IILA, Roma, Italia Museum Of Contemporary Photography MOCP, Public Works, Chicago, IL Arizona State Univeristy, Beyond the Fence, AZ Museo de Arte Ciudad Juarez/El Paso Museum of Art, Border Art Biennial, El Paso, TX Blissland Gallery, See You Soon, Berlin, Germany Rubin Center for The Visual Arts, Univeristy of Texas, Border 2010, El Paso, TX, USA Centro de la Imagen, XIV Bienal de Fotografia, Mexico City, MX Savignano Si Festival of Photography, Naturae, Italy Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore Houston FOTOFEST, International Discoveries II, Houston, TX Robert Koch Gallery, Dystopia, San Francisco, CA Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporáneo, Descubrimientos PhotoEspaña, Madrid, Spain