Black Tinted Heart

Modern Eden Gallery Verified independent store

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Details About Steel dissected gun, resin, and vintage cutting board 8 x 12 x 8 in. © 2017 Free-standing sculpture Mel Alves is a visual artist living in San Francisco, Ca.Alves was born in december 1983 San Jose, California (USA) but raised in Portugal.On her recent work - Urban Jungle - Alves focuses on current social and cultural issues, such as gun violence and culture of fear. She addresses how society is losing its core human values by focusing on power, greed, the individual and deception. She translates this loss into the powerful imagery of the toy gun (the “playful” or distorted appropriation of an object of violence) as a thing of beauty and pride in the form of taxidermy. Society’s trophy to itself: a reminder of its greatness. Alves work continuously, talks about paradoxes between hunter and prey, power and powerless, violence and protection, toy and weapon. Alves has also been painting “animal masks” where she explores the relation between animal instinct and our deepest inner self, viewed per the artist as our essence.even though the art of francis bacon will always be what ignited her artistic pursuit, Alves has been mainly influenced by the interaction of installation art, the motion of vídeo art and the marginality of street art. Some of her favorite artists are Christian Boltanski, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramovic, Mathew Barney, Bill Viola and Banksy. Since moving, on October 2011, from London UK, Melanie Alves decided to focus entirely on her art, participating in various shows around town, including wonderland sf, 111 Minna Gallery, Spoke Art and Modern Eden. Show more