ALEJANDRA GLEZ
Alejandra Glez (b. Havana 1996) is a self-taught photographer and video artist whose work is as much about the mind as it is about the body. Challenging common societal tropes with her provocative imagery, her work deals with issues of gender politics, violence against women, body dysmorphia, and terror; the terror of silence, the terror of loneliness, the terror of being alive.
Using the body, often her own, as a visual tool to communicate her ideas, she forces us to confront our own beliefs and our own discomfort with sitting with ourselves and perhaps the terror of our own introspection. Her models may have their faces hidden which leaves us unable to connect with them and again forces the viewer to connect within themselves, to who we are, how we think, and the experiences we have had in our lives.
"I use my own image and body as the object while re-telling the stories of women from specific traumas in their personal histories. Most importantly, my own personal anxiety is inspiration during my creative process along with the many sensations it provokes in me. The thought processes I experience during my anxiety attacks are a big source of inspiration and the underlying trauma which goes back to childhood experiences are also present during my creation.
Also, the macho society I live in and encounter every time I leave my house and walk down the streets of Havana, the behavior of men towards women in a social environment and women’s responses, play a key role in how I translate it later into my own art."
Alejandra was awarded the Arte Laguna Prize in 2020 for video art.
Her work has been exhibited in personal and group shows in Cuba, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Italy and Peru.
Alejandra currently lives and works in Havana, Cuba.