Lisa Alvarado

Transformations both large and small have long inspired Lisa Alvarado, from human migrations to a changing climate to the sun’s shifting light over the course of a single day. Raised in a Mexican-American family in San Antonio, Texas, Alvarado experienced the blending of diverse peoples, cultures, and aesthetics common in border communities. Recently, the artist has turned her attention to atmospheric forces, specifically the movement of air through geographic locales in middle latitudes, including Nebraska, where polar winds from the north meet warm equatorial breezes from the south. Such conditions affect the land over time, as eroded minerals, rocks, and fossils ride the wind and accumulate into undulating dunes. Alvarado sees these materials as more than sedimentary matter, contending that they hold the memories of their prior lives in the landscape and circulate just as people and traditions do. For her exhibition in The Joslyn’s Riley CAP Gallery, the artist reflects on such phenomena with an ethereal soundscape and abstract paintings so lively they nearly vibrate. In bridging sensory experiences, Alvarado creates an immersive environment that asks visitors to contemplate their own presences in this place.