Priscilla Aleman

CREATIVE DISCIPLINE-

sculpture

PRIMARY MEDIUM(S)- 
mixed media

ARTIST STATEMENT-
With my background in archaeology, I use sculpture and collage to retrace ideas around the body as a vessel, the afterlife, pre-Columbian cosmology, and the interplay of cultures from the global south. My Miami origin guides my work to better understand landscapes’ past traditions and their histories through the plants we cultivate. Citing the ocean as a connective tissue, I join materials that have resonance in both personal and historic senses, collected from regions throughout the Americas and Caribbean, to engage with historic and imagined depictions of diasporic civilizations. Through wayfinding, I incorporate a multitude of deep field research and work to push the process of re-contextualizing old and new worlds. My later arrangement of these materials in installations puts me in the position of a collector, creator, analyst, believer, and practitioner. With this method, I bring to life my own parallel and intersecting universes in process and form. At the core of my work is the preservation of memory. Stemming from personal, historical, and ecological realms, I highlight loss and recollection. By retracing meaning through our regional, global, and cosmic history, I chart the waves and ways we are interconnected. I equate the practice of thoughtful assemblage with care and ritual, connecting the physical and sacred realms.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY-
Priscilla Aleman (b. 1991, Miami, FL) is a visual artist based in New York and Miami. Aleman graduated from Columbia University with her MFA in sculpture. Upon graduating she continued her art practice working with archaeologists conducting an intimate investigation of the Tropics and the Latin America Landscape. Aleman has shown new work with Wavehill Sunroom Project Space and YoungArts. She was recently commissioned for a public work by the New York Botanical Garden Around the Table: Stories of the Foods We Love. Aleman has exhibited in group shows at Upstate Art Weekend, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, among other venues. She has participated as Artist-in-Residence at FountainHead, Bronx Museum AIM fellowship, Art + Research Center at ICA Miami, and has received numerous awards including The Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts City Artist Corp Grant, Miami Dade Art in Public Places Artist Access Grant, and is a U.S. Presidential Scholar alumna.

New York, United States