Emotive Lighting Sculptures by Spanish Artist & Designer Arturo Alvarez

Encontros.

Imos.

Arturo Álvarez is a self-taught Spanish artist whose work manifests in sculptural lighting and design. Consistently inspired by nature and humankind, his most recent work explores simple geometric and feminine forms. Using light as a medium of expression and human beings as the protagonist, Álvarez uses different techniques to explore an artistic expression whereby light and shadows create emotions.

Álvarez’s work comprises a range of contemporary lamps and an artwork collection, using highly durable and sustainable materials including pressed cellulose, stainless steel thread and galvanized steel mesh. Such materials allow for hand-shaped techniques and flexible, delicate shapes. Collections include ‘Coral’, a series or organic pendant lights inspired by the beauty of coral reefs, and ‘Ura’, with delicate folds handcrafted into recognizable shapes from nature. Álvarez also offers a customization option for the lamps through contract projects.

Leria.

Conversas.

Álvarez’s ‘artwork’ collections are what really caught our attention. ‘Leria’ explores human communication and wealth in the development of our collective intelligence. Language can be used for colloquial and loving purposes, but also as a device for management, separation, confrontation or deception. Using human-like elongated silhouettes constructed from black stainless steel mesh, Álvarez aims to focus on the warm and friendly aspects of conversation and communication.

The Leria wall compositions comprise of several faces hanging from steel wires, communicating with each other and projecting shadows on the wall from strategically placed LEDs. Their lightness means that a subtle breeze sways the projection into dynamic movement and gives a sense of conversation.

Agora.

‘Agora’ evokes the complexities within an individual confronting themselves, and the complex relationship with their environment. Stretched human-esque forms made from steel and a binding element are poked full of tiny holes from which hidden led light beams out. The determined beams represent the power of life trying to prevail, yet vanishing in areas where darkness dominates.

According to Álvarez, “the contemporary human being facing extreme individualism emerges with strength. Exhibited in a group, they provide a feeling of shared loneliness. The pieces, in suspended composition, hang by threads, which make the observer reflect.”