Oscillating between expression and constraint and advancing technological innovation while also utilising traditional craftsmanship, Alvarez’s sculptural forms challenge our perception of weight and gravity and appear both of this world and utterly separate from it. His practice focuses on the design of systems and the creation of tools and processes for producing sculptural objects and architecture. 

 Side by Side focuses on presenting works from Alvarez’s two main creations, his Thread Wrapping and Extruder machines. The Thread Wrapper is a large round mechanism that spins and sits atop a set of legs. It uses glue – coated thread to join wood, steel and plastic without any screws or nails. The resulting objects are distinctly unique, bound tightly by frenzied strings of colour that function as a single, externalised joint. Alvarez worked on the first version of this machine for a year. “I started doing very basic experiments, wrapping threads around stuff by hand, slowly [realising] I needed a tool to do this,” he recalls. “I made the first version, and maybe it was luck or skill, but it worked fine. I was very nervous with the second version, but it also worked fine. It took maybe a couple of weeks, a month, maybe a year, or even three, to get to the point where I’m starting to understand what’s possible with this technique.”

“Some pieces…are fully encased in thread, creating a dense weave of bright yellows, greens, and purples reminiscent of Abstract Expressionist paintings or mosaic tilework. Other pieces are more minimally coated, exposing their component parts and the ways in which they are held together… it is refreshing to see objects with some personality.”

Daniel Penny, The New Yorker

The glazed coloured objects can seem like they have landed from a far-flung place, while the unglazed and dyed stoneware remind us of archaeological remnants from a more ancient time. While the process of creation is controlled, the results are always unexpected, with Alvarez embracing the alchemy between wet clay and kiln and the uncontrollable ‘imperfections’ of the ceramic process. Resembling a large soft milk ice cream machine, Alvarez’s extruder exerts 3 tonnes of pressure, squeezing the wet clay through an array of different moulds, forcing folds and splits to occur. These then drop onto a plate that can be positioned at various heights, giving the artist a small measure of control.

 The technology created by the artist to aid in the works creation are inextricable from the artist’s work, and even from himself. They highlight the way in which an artist can become both craftsman and engineer, and the tension between these two roles. Alvarez continues to playfully push the boundaries, creating works rich in tradition and at the same time utterly unconventional to create a truly unique and surprising sculptural environment.

Anton Alvarez (b.1980) graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, UK in 2012. Recent solo exhibitions include L’Ultima Cera, Church San Bernardino alle Monache, Milan, Italy (2019); Visual Vertigo, Espace Muraille, Geneva, Switzerland (2019); To Plan the Unexpected, Christian Larsen, Stockholm, Sweden (2017); Alphabet Aerobics, National Centre for Craft and Design, UK (2016); How Long is a Piece of Thread, Xue Xue Institute, Taiwan (2016); Wrapsody, Salon 94, NY (2015). In September 2019 Alvarez will be included in the 10th Korean ceramic Biennale. Selected group shows include Ceramic Momentum: Staging the Object, Clay Keramikmuseum, Middelfart, Denmark (2019); The Most Real Thing: Contemporary Textiles and Sculpture, New Art centre, Roche Court, UK (2018); Color Your Life at Daelim Museum, Seoul, Korea and Wild Things at the Texture Museum, Belgium. Alvarez’s work is included in the public collections of the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden; Denver Art Museum, Colorado, USA and the Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden as well as many prominent private collections. In 2015 Alvarez’s first major monograph Anton Alvarez: The Thread Wrapping Machine was published by Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing with a foreword by Richard Wentworth.