Nina Alderete

I create visual stories through surreal collage paintings focusing on uncomfortable and often veiled emotions. These narratives are built intuitively through layers of materials and constructed personal symbolism. Materials such as vintage beads, old clothing, wax, paint, and thread create a seemingly vacant landscape to frame static figures. Figures are given new personas by changing their faces to inanimate objects to nearly expose their innermost thoughts and emotions. These graphically appealing collage figures feel simple yet stifling. Imposing an impossible polished veneer, it is unclear who the figure is or wants to be. Societal expectations have obscured the chance of an authentic self, making following the set cultural path safe and any deviation or outburst perilous. To give each figure a moment of exposed, vulnerable truth, handwritten and typed text is added. The text, for me, is when the painting turns into art. The look of the text can be subtle; the words are not. This momentary glimpse spotlights what is taught to be kept concealed.