• 532 GALLERY 

    ALBERTO ALEJANDRO RODRIGUEZ

    SPACE: PAST PRESENT

  • The works of Barcelona-based artist Alberto Alejandro Rodríguez are haunted by the specter of destruction. Using ruined architectures as a backdrop, he constructs liminal spaces suggestive of abandoned offices, squatted rooms, entrances leading nowhere. In an effort to articulate how the vestiges of human effort that earmark such spaces can align with polarizing feelings of rootlessness and nostalgia, Rodríguez underscores the political narratives that are encrusted onto the surfaces of these sites.

  • Auriga

    Auriga

    His Auriga series, which borrows its name from Plato’s dialogue Phaedrus, refers to a mythical charioteer driving two winged horses: one representing all that is beautiful and good, while the other represents neither. Composed of plasterboard, wood, and paper fragments retrieved from an abandoned mansion in Havana, Rodríguez’s Auriga works recreate what was once one of the most elegant buildings in Havana: a structure which, today, has all but fallen into ruin. While specialists have identified the cause of the building’s destruction as being due to its proximity to the sea, Rodríguez sees in this a poetic testament to history’s frailty in the teeth of geological time and ineluctable natural forces.

  • Destruktion

    Destruktion

    The series titled Destruktion consists of found pieces of wood, iron, and wall paper retrieved from a derelict building in Havana. Arranged to appear like miniature rooms, glimpsed through a portal, these works show how seemingly random and ephemeral surfaces can provide the foundation for entrenched architectural vistas. 
  • Descriptive Memory

    Descriptive Memory

    In a work like Descriptive Memory, which forms the centerpiece of the exhibition, the concepts “document” and “documentation” converge to map out a scale model of an abandoned building. Rodríguez’s use of actual legal documents to reference the building’s history not only thematizes its current state of decay, but points out the political responses that have cropped up around the site.
  • Prolog

    Prolog

    Titled Prolog, the works included in this series anticipate design alternatives fostered by corrosion and decay, or spatially model the historical stages of a built structure from the date of its construction to the year of its demolition.
  • While specialists have identified the cause of the building’s destruction as being due to its proximity to the sea, Rodríguez sees in this a poetic testament to history’s frailty in the teeth of geological time and ineluctable natural forces.
  • The Art of Horticulture

    The Art of Horticulture

    The pieces from 'The Art of Horticulture' seek to recall the existence of abandoned, forgotten, or ruined architectural structures around us.

  • About Alberto Alejandro Rodríguez

    Alberto Alejandro Rodríguez (1995, Havana) graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts “San Alejandro" and holds a Master’s Degree in Artistic Production and Research from the University of Barcelona. He has participated in solo and group exhibitions at galleries and cultural centers across Cuba, USA, and Spain: among them, the Contemporary Art Center (Havana); 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel (NY); the Viladot Foundation (Barcelona); and Casal Solleric (Palma de Mallorca). His work can be found in the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, and has been reviewed by The Brooklyn Rail, Hypermedia Magazine, and CdeCuba.

     

    For further information or to schedule an interview with the artist, please contact info@532gallery.com