Elia participated as a Visual Art Fellow for AVR3 (November 2020). Click here to see Elia’s program.
Elia Alba, born in Brooklyn 1962, is a multidisciplinary artist, who works in photography, video and sculpture. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Hunter College in 1994 and completed the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program in 2001. She has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Science Museum, London; Smithsonian Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, ITAU Cultural Institute, São Paulo; National Museum of Art, Reina Sofía, Madrid and the 10th Havana Biennial. She is a recipient of the Studio Museum in Harlem Artist-in Residence Program in 1999; Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2002 and Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant 2002 and 2008; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) Workspace Program, 2009, and Anonymous Was A Woman Award, 2019. Collections include the Smithsonian Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, Lowe Art Museum. Her book, Elia Alba, The Supper Club, critically acclaimed by The New York Times, brings together artists, scholars and performers of diasporic cultures, through photography, food and dialogue to examine race and culture in the United States. She is currently guest curator for El Museo del Barrio’s upcoming survey of contemporary Latinx art, ESTAMOS BIEN – LA TRIENAL 20/21 opening March 2021. www.eliaalba.net
“Born in the U.S. to parents who immigrated from the Dominican Republic, I have often found myself in-between these cultures, countries and identities. These different positions made me realize that people’s characteristics are not limited to their race or ethnic heritage but rather subject to change and modification through experiences. Through photograph, sculpture and video, my work has always been concerned with fluid identities and the collective community. My project, the Supper Club, brings together artists, scholars and performers of diverse diasporic cultures, through photography, food and dialogue to examine race and culture in the U.S. My recent sculptural work of hands, created through a photo-transfer process on fabric, reflect the personality and identity of each sitter through the lens of history or folklore and the narratives ascribed to their hands.”
Elia Alba
