Alexa Treviño has been working long hours on the artwork she will be presenting at her shop and gallery on Saturday. I know she has because I saw one of her posts on her Instagram published at 3:37 a.m.
This morning, I walked over to Mission and 24th to see if I could find out more about her upcoming show. The shop is quite big with a screen printing machine in the front and a studio space in the back where Alexa and Ivan Lopez produce their work. They are the two in-house artists but also carry artwork from more than 80 local artists.
Treviño loves to take photographs—she keeps a personal journal full of Polaroids during her travels, loves mobile photography and carries her camera everywhere to shoot material for her shows.
The goal with each photo show is to raise enough money to reset the cycle: travel, shoot, learn and make the most of her time.
Treviño is working with Pedro Álvarez, a local artist who builds longboards for Vamara and outsources the wood that Treviño uses to transfer her images onto. The wood used is birch, which gives the image a certain texture. “Each panel displays snippets of people I meet and who I can enjoy a moment with. It’s a místico kinda look,” she said of capturing on natural wood the images of organic interactions with people she encountered during her travels.
The upcoming show will be a display of double exposure photography over wood. It’s a photo collage with texture, but it’s also “trippy psychedelic. I went to the Peruvian Amazon and I wanted to present images differently this time,” she said to two people who came into the shop looking for locally designed shirts.
When she asked her 15-year-old guide in the Amazon what he wanted to learn, he replied he wanted to learn how trees were born. It was then that Treviño figured how important it was to enjoy her time and use it wisely—hence the title of the show, Aprovecha.
The opening reception will be this Saturday (August 16), from 7-10 p.m. Music by DJ A Boogie. 2751 Mission Street. Artillery Gallery. Entrance is free; artwork will be on sale.
