Cross-Border Women:
Alejandra Phelts

From March 3, 2024

ALEJANDRA PHELTS: ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My creative execution is based on my interest in recording the desires and daily experiences of women living in Tijuana. Theirs is a border city next to the United States that is characterized by its contradictions: it is considered the busiest border in Mexico, the city has been classified as one of the most violent cities in the world, and living in Tijuana means living with San Diego, a city that has been considered the best in the United States (America’s finest city).

Far from any type of victimization, my proposal documents everyday experiences that link intimacy, affective relationships, and attitudes of female empowerment.

Pictorial paintings have been essential in the development of my artistic work because, through images that are perceived as real, I can represent and present desires, utopias, and one or another reality.

Relational art is another genre that I find fascinating. Given so many stereotypes that have been spread about border life, what does it mean to be and live as a woman in Tijuana? To answer this question, I turn to multidisciplinary practices that include installation, object art, photography, performance, and conviviality with women living in different Tijuana contexts.

An aesthetic circumstance that makes me very curious is the relationship between beauty and contemporary art. Faced with the hostility of the visual stereotypes that define border life, is it possible to create an artistic proposal that confronts the aesthetically correct aggressiveness of border cultural stereotypes? I invite you to explore my artistic proposal.

Biography

ALEJANDRA PHELTS (Mexico, 1978)

She began her studies in 1998 at the Institut Privé de Philosophie et Théologie Saint Jean in Saint Jodard, France. In 2007, she got a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the Autonomous University of Baja California UABC.

Since 2001, Phelts has used painting and other artistic languages such as installation, photography, video, and performance to explore the female condition. Her proposal records daily experiences that link intimacy, affective relationships, and attitudes of empowerment.

Phelts has participated in more than 60 exhibitions in France, Italy, Spain, Monaco, Japan, the United States, Canada, Indonesia, China, Japan, Korea Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Abu Dhabi, and Oman.

She has been selected to represent Mexico in exhibitions such as the XX Japan International Art Exchange 2021, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum; The Salon des Beaux Arts 2018, Salle le Nôtre, LOUVRE, Paris, France and the G20 Hangzhou China Global Arts Agenda, Hangzhou Qianjiang Museum of Art, China in 2016.

In 2017 she obtained the 1st Prize Honored Artist at the Latin American Art Fair, San Diego, California, USA.

Complementing her artistic projects, Phelts also participated as a speaker at TED Talks at the Universidad Iberoamericana and CETYS Universidad. She was invited as an art expert at Frontera Women of the Wall by the World Building Institute of the University of Southern California, and has also collaborated in the conception and logistics of the SINERGIA International Art Symposium of CETYS University.