Emil Alzamora is a contemporary sculptor whose work investigates the human figure through experimental manipulations of form, harnessing a wide range of materials and sculptural techniques to yield unexpected interpretations of the body. He often distorts, elongates, encases, or deconstructs his sculptural figures to reveal an underlying emotional or physical situation or narrative, examining the human form both physically and psychologically. Working with media such as bronze, gypsum, concrete, and various ceramics, Alzamora leverages each material’s distinct physical properties in a hands-on, process-driven approach that directly informs the aesthetic and conceptual outcomes of his sculptures. This distinctive combination of radical form manipulation, material versatility, and conceptual inquiry defines Alzamora’s sculptural practice.
Definitely daytime. I wind down around 6-7 pm. But will visit the studio that’s in the backyard if needed intermittently in the late evening but this is usually to wrap things up that are time sensitive. Otherwise I’m in there starting 9-10 am, sometimes earlier and end up in there all day breaking for lunch. My wife, Annie, handles the business end of things so I’m free to just make all the time. Lucky me.
Flip the lights on and have a look around to refresh where things were left off the night before. Assess what needs tending (sometimes I light the pellet stove in the winter). I have over a dozen active sculptures and sometimes paintings happening simultaneously. This keeps me busy and plenty entertained. I often say time is a medium. So if something needs a beat, I have something else that needs tending on a different timeline.
These days I’m doubling down on clay, and glazes. It’s so much fun. I usually don’t go full blown color bombs but that’s been my MO lately and I’m loving it. It’s like painting blindfolded (the glazes going on are totally different from what they turn into) but on a 3D surface.
Flowers! Both naturalistic and fantastical. Their architecture is very different from a human body, but they are living things and have intentions and apparently desires so it is easy to anthropomorphize them. Especially when they are “growing” out of a human body as they do in this recent series of busts.
Sculptures (2017) by Ivo Dimchev
I’ve recently stumbled onto Ivo Dimchev (thank you insta algo). He is Bulgarian but now based in NYC. I liken him to a crooning human animal spirit, raw and expressive. His album (oddly) “Sculptures” (coincidentally) is a bizarre inspiring and interesting visit. Also still digging Wild Beasts and all their albums. Along with Basicnoise and Fluxion for the beats.
Good question… maybe Hokusai? I feel that maybe collaborating with a sculptor might be a little obnoxious! I work alone in the studio except for help from my wife from time to time (she glazes, files, sands, paints, waxes and does mold making). I don’t like assistants or to have to come up with busy work. For me, it’s very important to be present and respond to any vibrations in the studio, like a spider tuning into its web.
I’d love to do more large scale public works. It’s the most interesting place for sculpture yet somehow the most challenging. I think it’s often committee based and requires so many vettings that I find it more interesting to make what I want in the studio and then at some point those things will garner more attention from such venues. I’ve had a few pieces installed in public and semi public environments but I’d like to have more of them and of course larger scale. My biggest to date is a 12 foot bronze figure (Albedo, from 2014).
If you’re in the art world 🌍 I think you get it pretty clearly, but often people that are not so involved in that world think that it is somehow bohemian or counterculture. It is to some extent, but it’s Bohemia with a business degree if you want to really dig in and make waves. You have to be at least somewhat of an entrepreneur. I like the challenges making your art into a business presents. I have immense support too from my wife who handles all the nuts and bolts of that. It’s a business, whether you’re selling your art or trying to get grants to fund it. And having a different job/income for me is not an option. Extreme art or bust.
Best advice… my mother, who is also an artist, said to me as a teenager, “follow your bliss”. That got the wheels rolling. I’ve always loved drawing. I thought I would find some sort of work drawing but her advice combined with great teachers and advisers at Florida State University led to a path of extreme arting. Worst advice… a teacher, several for that matter, at university asked me "Why do you do figurative art? It’s been done before."
Hard to pin that one down. But if I had to say, DIA Beacon (5 min from my house and studio) is pretty epic.
Their authentic smile, which indicates presence combined with an awareness of how special having any sort of presence is. To be here… you kind of have to smile (with the eyes). The default state of the universe, pretty much 99.9999% of it is minus 455 degrees Fahrenheit. This is special.
Glazes for a new series of crazy colorful flower busts.
Cold, crispy, subtle, simple fresh beer.
The Road Less Traveled (1978) by M. Scott Peck
I read The Road Less Traveled when I was 18 or 19. It planted to seeds of "getting over myself." That combined with an absurd dose of magic mushrooms at age 16 really helped me to focus on the world rather than on myself.
Ha! I do like the idea of levitation. If I didn't have to lift heavy things as much or at all I would be a much more capable sculptor.
Sugar. That has to be the worst. Not that I eat that much. But it is delightful and I know it has zero nutritional value other than that dopamine rush. Oh well.
Any city. Any museum. I love NYC. That’s why I moved to the Beacon area 27 years ago. I also love nature. I live on a creek with rushing water surrounded by trees and the mountains. Best of both worlds.
I'd like to be a theoretical physicist. But I don’t think I have that kind of brain. Unfortunately. So more likely I’d collect things and sell them. Stones, masks, armor, tools, scientific instruments, art etc etc etc etc. I love what humans make.
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