ALONZO PANTOJA | FADED MANNERS

Faded Manners expands into the physical space and metaphors of navigation and adaptation. Mr. Pantoja describes his work as "centering queerness as a collective and personal contribution by making hand weavings that consider: queerness, orientation, and impermanence. The work exists in the past, present, and future. In an exchange of becoming and unbecoming - in constant motion towards a potential of interpretations that seek to engage with viewers through orientation."

ARTIST STATEMENT

Manner - according to Webster’s dictionary is defined as the following: 1) a characteristic or customary mode of acting, 2) mode of presentation, 3) social conduct or rules of conduct as shown in prevalent customs. Considering these definitions the work stems from all three and neither. Manners is an umbrella term that embodies the work for its formal and conceptual concerns. The manner in which the work is displayed, the manner in which the work was created, the manner in which the viewers consider the work and space.

Space is relative. Space is shared. Space is volatile. I am interested in investigating spaces in the simplest form - navigation and adaptation. I am interested in centering queerness as a collective and personal contribution by making hand-weavings that consider: queerness, orientation, and impermanence. The work exists in the past, present, and future. In an exchange of becoming and unbecoming - in constant motion towards a potential of interpretations that seek to engage with viewers through orientation.

BIOGRAPHY

Alonzo Pantoja is a queer, brown artist and educator - he earned his MFA in Fiber and Installation from Minneapolis College of Art and Design; BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He has participated in solo and group shows in spaces such as: Arrowmont Gallery (TN), Nefarious Contemporary (MD), Fluffy Crimes (IL), Yours Truly (WI), Minneapolis Institute of Art (MN), Nemeth Art Center (MN), Textile Center (MN), Public Functionary (MN), Normal Residential Purposes (MN) to name a few. They have been featured in Textiel Plus, Tence Magazine, Hyperallergic, The Coastal Post, and Design & Living Magazine. He was a resident at Ox-Bow School of Art, a fellow at Arrowmont School of Arts and most recently they served on the 2022-23 Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program panel for the Minneapolis Institute of Art. He currently lives in Minneapolis, MN where he teaches at Augsburg University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Textile Center.

Masks are recommended in the main gallery space.