Andrew Alba

b. 1986, Salt Lake City, Utah

Lives and works in Salt Lake City, Utah

Andrew Alba is a prolific artist with a nontraditional background and a genuine love of communicating through thick, gestural application of oil paint and utilization of repurposed construction materials. Some highlights to his career to date are being awarded a Fellowship from the Utah Division of Arts and Museums, being an artist in residence and exhibiting with the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as being featured in multiple shows at Ogden Contemporary Arts. Borrowing techniques of abstraction from neoexpressionists, Alba’s work aims to evoke an emotional response while commenting on our wildly complex sociopolitical present. As a self-taught artist, he creates work without the theoretical constraints and critical expectations of the academy. Alba juxtaposes the clean white walls of the gallery with the rough-hewn, everyday materials of the worker. While drop cloths, drywall, mud, concrete, and lumber are not of traditional gallery ‘quality,’ he is interested in how these materials will relate to working people.

In a world saturated with pain and heartache, I seek to explore the fragile and tender balance between suffering and beauty. The work reflects the pervasive background noise of loss that permeates our daily lives, asking how we navigate existence amid turmoil and unrest.

What worlds exist in flowers? Do the petals hold a story—a fragment of our shared experience of love and pain? How do we perceive the landscapes around us, and how do those perceptions shape our reality?

Where does spiritual pain reside in our bodies? Do flowers, in their silent beauty, echo our struggles? Through this work, I aim to create a space for reflection and connection, encouraging us to find peace, beauty, and loving rage even amidst the chaos.

andrew-alba.com

Instagram: @andrew.alba