steven alvarez

A Review of the DirtIsDirt show on Philly Side Arts. Thanks DoN!

Steven Alvarez, Untitled (Philadelphia) 57, photograph at Paradigm Gallery, “All the bags were found on the streets of Philadelphia. Mostly in Pennsport, right around near where I live. It makes me uncomfortable, a little bit, the idea that that’s what’s associated with my neighborhood.” The philatelic plastic bags designed for stamp collectors litter the artist’s neighborhood. “I just realized that more and more it’s something that I’ve seen in the city and I’ve tried to remove myself from it these days and not look for them as much. But, I still find myself with my head down looking at the ground.” Steven Alvarez scans the found objects with a high resolution scanner so he can make the images as heroically scaled as he wants. “The detail of the residue in the bag in Blueberry is amazing, it’s an interesting composition considering it’s designer drugs.” Gallery 339‘s Martin McNamara commented, “They’re very graphic, it’s an interesting idea behind them, visually they’re really striking.”