Alexander Apóstol

Alexander Apóstol was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in 1969. He studied photography with Ricardo Armas from 1987 to 1988, and art history at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, from 1987 to 1990. Apóstol has completed residencies with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Maracay Mario Abreu, Venezuela (1998), Casa de América, Madrid (2002), and the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Italy (2012–13).

Encompassing photography and video, Apóstol’s oeuvre seeks to expose fractures in the modernist project, both in the artist’s native Venezuela and across South America. Since early in his career, he has concentrated on the iconography of the urban landscape, a tendency exemplified by his series Polished Residents (Residente Pulido, 2001). This set of photographs portrays iconic buildings from 1950s Caracas, but Apóstol digitally altered the images to conceal windows and doors. Built landmarks are thus transformed into impenetrable monoliths that speak to the decadence of a metropolitan project now estranged from its architectural contemporaries.