Cool Hunting

Mexico City most often conjures visuals involving a profusion of bright colors and bustling energy, possibly even tacky souvenirs or dice hanging from rear view mirrors. While her hometown's influence is mildly apparent in her work, Alejandra Laviada's photosculpture series of abandoned industrial objects stacked and set against the slate backdrop of Mexico City's abandoned factories is a sharp contrast to any preconception we may have had about the city with 19 million people.

With an incredible talent for composition of space and color, Alejandra takes ordinary warehouse items like giant drums or office chairs and piles them up, creating compelling sculptures and amazing feats in balance.

Alejandra finished her undergrad in painting at the Rhode Island School of Design and carried on to complete a masters in photography from New York's School of Visual Arts. Mixing mediums is not the only objective in her work, as her recent series "Photo Sculptures" is "an attempt to record pieces of history that are simultaneously being erased and created" in Mexico City's ever-daunting struggle to revere the past while looking forward to the future. Like the work of husband-and-wife team Bernd and Hilla Becher, some of her work begins to look like a taxonomy of inanimate objects.

Her work is soon current display at the Palacio de Iturbide, an 18th-century mansion now restored and devoted to art exhibitions and educational events.

Intimidades: Acceso Publicos/Visiones Privadas
Palacio de Iturbide
Madero 17
Centro Historico, Mexico City 06000
Mexico map
tel. +55 1226 02 33