Alexis Duque

Region: Northeast

Website: http://www.alexisduque.net

City / State: New York, NY

The chaotic and unavoidable processes of urbanization in our globalized and overpopulated world are the central focus of my work. My paintings explore perceptions of innocence and violence, transgression and balance. I like to work with improbability and distortion, and this often lets us discern what is normal and what is not; dysfunction helps to elucidate function.

The dual experience is evoked by exaggerating drama and chaos in a destroyed street after a bombing, using bright and pastel colors, or the total absence of human beings in a landscape opposing the saturation of daily objects. With this juxtaposition I pretend to create a response that fluctuates between purity and corruption, balance and distortion.

My work attempts to challenge our constructed responses to these images by triggering a double take in the way the viewer confronts the idea of urbanization, and urbanization within contemporary culture.