Alejandro Macias

LatchKey Gallery, in partnership with CALA Alliance (Phoenix, AZ), is pleased to present Land of Wolves. This exhibition showcases new work by Alejandro Macias (b. 1987, Brownsville, TX), produced during CALA Alliance’s 2023 Regional Artist-in-Residence program. Land of Wolves is the artist’s New York City debut and the first show with LatchKey Gallery.

Macias roots his practice in the ambiguity of the in-between–of identity, nationhood, and place. His paintings and drawings address themes of migration and assimilation, rendering a unique impression of the US/Mexico borderlands and foregrounding the brutal and unjust policies that characterize this space. The artist positions himself as a documentarian, depicting the objects, people, and geographies that make up the dynamic yet complex region.

The duality of Macias’s compositions highlights the inherent friction that people of the borderlands hold within them. In many ways, the portraits, signs, and maps are physical manifestations of this rupture. Taken as a whole, Macias’s work asks us to consider the multiplicities of identities we may hold and how they might be in conflict with each other.

Alejandro Macias (b. 1987, Brownsville, TX) Born along the U.S./ Mexico border, Alejandro Macias received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2008, and a Master of Fine Arts in 2-D Studio Art from the University of Texas - Pan American in 2012.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including notable residencies at Vermont Studio Center, Chateau d’Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France, The Studios at MASS MoCA, Wassaic Project, CALA Alliance, and Uncool Artist in Brooklyn, NY (2024).

Recent group exhibitions include the Visual Arts Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Mexic-Arte Museum, Amarillo Museum of Art, Carlsbad Museum of Art, Las Cruces Museum of Art, Arizona State University Art Museum, and Centro de Artes in San Antonio. He has held solo exhibitions at Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts, Presa House Gallery, Tucson Museum of Art, and was featured in the West Issue #156 of New American Paintings, juried by Lauren R. O’Connell, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art.

Macias is the recipient of the Lehmann Emerging Artist award, which included a two person exhibition at the Phoenix Art Museum.