Alejandra Venegas

Proyectos Monclova presents the exhibition by thre Mexican artist Alejandra Venegas, under the title Nubada, a word that refers to the abundant blow of water that falls on a specific place.

The exhibition displays works made from blocks of wood from different trees such as walnut, xiloxochitl, huanacaxtle, banak and red cedar, on which she carves reliefs with traditional tools: gouges and mallets. Venegas uses color instinctively and paints each relief with gouaches in specific carved areas, adding vibrancy and symbolism to the pieces. From the material choice and technique used, the artist creates links between painting and sculpture, but also between nature and culture, the exterior and the interior.

The insistent tapping of the gouges on the block of wood is essential to give it shape, a task that generates different rhythms and points of concentration in Venegas' work.

For the artist, carving is a process of unveiling what each block of wood contains, therefore, each relief is the result of that discovery. Sculpting the surface allows the revelation of memory within nature, its perceptions and its testimonies; discovering the color, aroma, texture and direction of the wood grains and knots is an important part of her relationship with the material.

The theme of her pieces is linked to her vision of natural phenomena, the climate and the seasonality of the upper zone of Xochimilco, where she lives and works. Throughout her outings around Xochimilco, Venegas carefully observes the language of the plants and animals that surround her, and as part of these observations, the motifs of her reliefs emerge: seeds that sprout from the earth, plants and flowers, grasshoppers and other animals that surround the area, rain, the sun and their influence on the transformation of the landscape. But she also uses certain ornamental figures such as the spiral that symbolizes expansion and growth.

— Proyectos Monclova