Clementina Arts Foundation
To fulfill its mission statement, the Alvarez Gallery spun-off its community unit – which includes free studios for emerging artists, a youth-centered art experiences and programs for museums – into its own 501C(3), Clementina Arts Foundation. CAF was inspired by the memory and teachings of Clementina Charry, grandmother of the founder and director of the Alvarez Gallery, Fernando Luis Alvarez.
Sprouting Spaces
Sprouting Spaces is born out of the understanding that one of the most critical elements of the success in an artists’ career is the possibility to have a space to create. Sprouting Spaces responds to this specific issue by uniting artists looking for a space with landlords that have commercial vacancies. These spaces also invite the community in to engage in discussion and gather together around the arts.
Kid+Contemporary
Kid+Contemporary seeks to introduce children to important private contemporary art collections and educate young students on the importance of contemporary art and collecting. By partnering with respected foundations, museums, private collectors and through the cooperation of local school systems and youth organizations, the program seeks to empower and enlighten our youth through the arts.
The Curtains
Curtains is ultimately an artivims project – a work of protest Art against those who shield dangerous actors in our society
In 2018 a group of academics, artists, and ordinary citizens concerned about, the human and health crisis caused by the distribution and consumption of legally delivered opioids, join their efforts and opinions to make it evident and manifest against it, under the leadership of the artivist Fernando Alvarez, with the result of Opioid: Express Yourself! on June 22, 2018, launched by the Alvarez Gallery in Stamford, CT.
The show curated by Fernando Alvarez under the expression of art as artivism gave Alvarez Gallery artists the opportunity to denounce and hold accountable the architects of the opioid epidemic, including pharmaceutical suppliers, politicians, the FDA, distributors, and doctors.
Both the Opioid: Express Yourself! show and The Spoon Movement sought justice for opioid survivors and their family members. The team view their ongoing activist efforts as meant to raise awareness of the fraud and conspiracy engineered by large pharmaceutical providers and the mounting death toll of the opioid crisis. We believe that the Sackler family and their company Purdue Pharma are especially responsible. We fight not only for the Sacklers to face justice but in hopes that the opioid epidemic ends and no such national tragedy ever happens again.
The Spoon Movement
For close to two years, the Gallery created, strategized, directed and executed an artist-led group exhibition called “Opioid: Express Yourself”, which featured work by more than eight artists including Antuan Rodriguez, John J. Bedoya, Ben Quesnel, Lee Tahl, Domenic Esposito, Clinton Decker, Jason Werner, Matthew Cleary, and Nathan Lewis. This show was the precedent for “The Spoon Movement”, a guerrilla sculpture installation with the intention of bringing awareness to the opioid crisis in the United States and to hold accountable those responsible for promoting it.
The Spoon Movement features two acts: For Act 1, an 800-pound and 11-foot long heroin spoon was designed as a “gift” for the architects of this crisis: Oxycontin manufacturer Purdue Pharma. On June 22, 2018, the giant spoon was dropped at the doorstep of Purdue Pharma’s headquarters in Stamford, CT, by the Gallery’s exhibition organizers and the artist who created it. It was here that Fernando Luis Alvarez, gallery founder and creator of the “Opioid: Express Yourself!” exhibition and Spoon Movement,
was arrested after taking responsibility for the installation of the giant spoon, as they were being threatened with a felony by the police.
On Act 2, “The Spoon Movement” reached its full potential as a platform for civic engagement. The movement was open-sourced, so that artists and the community could use this platform as an opportunity to bring the architects of the opioid epidemic to justice through public art actions. Artists all over the US and around the globe are invited to contribute their skills towards this purpose and to promote a change by creating their own versions of the spoon. The community is also invited to nominate any subjects, or “architects”, so they can also be held accountable for their part in the opioid crisis.
The Spoon Movement serves as a reminder to the families that have suffered any loss that they are not alone, and that the community they are a part of supports them in their search for the right accountability.
Yerwood Center
In 2013, Fernando Luis Alvarez was approached by the Yerwood Center, a community resource center providing educational and personal development opportunities for youth and adults, to come on as its Chairman of the Board. In a difficult time for the Center, as it was going through financial trouble, Alvarez quickly sprung to action by making meaningful changes to the operations of the Center and its programs, and stepped in to assume the role of Interim Director to ensure that the Center would not shut down completely.
As Interim Director, Alvarez raised over $350,000, which went towards paying the Center’s teachers and staff several weeks of backpay that were unfulfilled by the previous management. Understanding the importance of the center, he also sought to make it sustainable by partnering with the Boys and Girls Club and structuring a deal for this well-established organization to take it over. Thanks to his efforts, after Alvarez stepped down from his position in 2015, the Center merged with the Boys and Girls Club of Stamford and reopened its programming to the children of the community, restoring it to the strong, safe platform it once was, and helping improve the lives of children and adults in Stamford.
News: Yerwood Center Gets Help to Solve Its Summertime Blues Fernando Luis Alvarez and Gallery Artist William Nelson Build Community by Rob Varnon (Stamford Advocate, July 1, 2014)
NEWS AND EVENTS
Alvarez Gallery honors relevant lives in art and appreciates their legacy
Last February we honored the work of 2 great artists: Charles O. Perry (October 18, 1929, Helena, Montana, US – February 8, 2011, Norwalk, Connecticut,
Jena Thomas solo show Acid Summer at 701 Center for the Contemporary Arts in Columbia, S.C.
From Alvarez Gallery, we would like to congratulate our represented artist Jena Thomas, who on July 15 of this year opened her solo exhibition “Acid
Arturo Di Modica’s art: A memory
Arturo will forever be legend, friend, mentor, rebel and master scultptor who refused to take the traditional road in the art world Fernando Alvarez Fernando
Ben Quesnel, to be featured in ‘The ripple effect’ exhibition at Artport Kingston
We are proud to announce that Ben Quesnel’s work will be featured in “The Ripple Effect”, an exhibition at ArtPort Kingston. ArtPort Kingston is “a
Ben Quesnel on The ‘Taking it to the streets’ Talk by the Bruce Museum
On July 9, Alvarez Gallery artist Ben Quesnel co-moderated the “Taking it to the Streets” Zoom event by The Bruce Museum, along with Leonard Jacobs,
Shelby Head, selected for the Tulsa Artist Fellowship 2020-2021
Fernando Luis Álvarez Gallery is proud to announce the Tulsa Artist Fellowship has chosen Shelby Head, one of our artists, as one of the 18 Fellows for the 2020-2021 period. Head
Ben Quesnel received The Artist Respond Grant from The Connecticut Office of the Arts
We are excited to announce that Ben Quesnel, Alvarez Gallery artist and Clementina Arts Foundation member, has been granted the Artist Respond Grant from The Connecticut Office
Jena Thomas featured in The Momentary’s State of the Art 2020
Artist Jena Thomas was featured in the opening of The Momentary, a new space for contemporary visual and performing arts on the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The Momentary opened its
Rex Prescott Walden exhibited in the New Haven Paint And Clay Club Collection, “A Century Of Creativity” At The Lyman Allyn Art Museum
We would like to recognize our artist, Rex Walden, for the inclusion of one of his pieces in the New Haven Paint & Clay Club’s
Rex Prescott Walden’s artwork, included in the book “Miss Florence’s Artist Trees: Celebrating A Tradition Of Painted Palettes” by The Florence Griswold Museum
Miss Florence’s Artist Trees: Celebrating a Tradition of Painted Palettes, the 2019 book released by the Florence Griswold Museum, features the artwork of our artist: Rex Walden.
Donation of two paintings by Rex Prescott Walden for the New Yale University Child Study Center
Giving back to our community is part of our purpose at the Alvarez Gallery. To fulfill this effort, FLAG artist Rex Walden Prescott donated two