Alyssa Aviles
Alyssa Aviles is a visual artist and arts educator based in San Francisco, CA. Aviles is a printmaker by trade and utilizes printmaking techniques across the various mediums that she works in.
Her work portrays personal and collective narratives through processes of ritual and repetition. Aviles’ work reimagines traditional Chicano illustration and symbolism, exploring themes of liminality, mysticism, identity, ancestry and the feminine. Her imagery is shaped by converging identities and experiences in a working-class community, and seeks to reveal
the spirit behind everyday places, people and objects.
Alyssa expands past the traditional print to create spaces and experiences that are interactive and facilitate moments of inner knowing.Aviles graduated with a BFA in Printmaking from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has worked as an educator at Mission Gráfica, Youth Art Exchange, the De Young Museum, Root Division, Kala Art Institute and Mullowney Printing Co. Aviles has facilitated collaborative public art projects with SFMTA, YBCA, MEDA and Carnaval SF, and is a part of the Mission Gráfica / La Raza Graphics print archive. Aviles has created visuals for The California Endowment, The Center for Cultural Power and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Her work has been exhibited at YBCA, Acción Latina, Galería de la Raza, SOMArts, Incline Gallery, Gallery 16 and Adobe Books. Aviles facilitates Suavecita Press, a collaborative project that aims to pave accessibility to printmaking as a form of cultural preservation.
Title: “The Object of My Desire is a Malefic Form, a Flashing Gaze”
Materials: Woodcut On Kozo Paper
Dimensions: 20” x 24”
These two pieces are studies of a complex inner dialogue, and explore the feeling of being on the threshold of a revelation. They are portals into the experiences of longing, desire, consumption and disorientation. The imagery in both pieces reference photos of my mother taken in different times of her life, as well as scenes from St. Francis Fountain and Dore Photo Studio in San Francisco’s Mission District. I layer these archival images of my neighborhood and lineage with iconography from mythological and alchemical texts as a method of building my own personal archetypes for the human experience. These pieces were carved on Shina wood blocks and printed by hand on Japanese Kozo paper.
Title: “The Left Hand Path, Suspended on the Wings of a Dove, Descending from a Star”
Materials: Woodcut On Kozo Paper
Dimensions: 20” x 24”
These two pieces are studies of a complex inner dialogue, and explore the feeling of being on the threshold of a revelation. They are portals into the experiences of longing, desire, consumption and disorientation. The imagery in both pieces reference photos of my mother taken in different times of her life, as well as scenes from St. Francis Fountain and Dore Photo Studio in San Francisco’s Mission District. I layer these archival images of my neighborhood and lineage with iconography from mythological and alchemical texts as a method of building my own personal archetypes for the human experience. These pieces were carved on Shina wood blocks and printed by hand on Japanese Kozo paper.