My Favorite Things: Alejandro Guzman on Kane Quaye’s Coffin

Drumroll please…

…we’ve launched another YouTube video series!

Check out My Favorite Things, (the video companion to the in gallery tours by the same name), where artists discuss some of their favorite artworks in SAM’s collection. We have five videos up on our My Favorite Things playlist on the SAM YouTube channel so far, but today we’re focusing on a single artist in the series: Alejandro Guzman. Born in Puetro Rico, Alejandro now works and lives in New York City.

Alejandro is a contemporary mixed media and performance artist who creates “performance sculptures” that have an active life as catalysts, generating what he calls Creative Misunderstandings. His act of giving sculptures a dynamic life has led to the creation of a family of Creative Misunderstandings with titles such as Mendacity, Class Wars, Intellectual Derelict, and The Fatalist. The sculptures were on view at SAM June 18 through September 7, 2015 as a part of the exhibition, Disguise: Masks & Global African Art.

For the exhibition’s opening celebration, Night of Disguise, Guzman collaborated with a team of local artists and dancers for his nGangulero: an activated group of sculptures which came to life, moved around the gallery, and performed unexpected exchanges that integrated music, video, and dance. It was a sight to behold for all in attendance, and an invigorating activation of the museum space.

In his interview, Alejandro discusses one of his favorite pieces at SAM: Mercedes Benz Coffin by Ghanaian artist Kane Quaye. He selected this object because he believes it to be a living form of sculpture that affects both the artist, the deceased one, and the community. This feeling of connectedness and life after creation is exactly what Alejandro aspires to do with his own sculptures and performances.

Watch the interview, and then subscribe to our My Favorite Things playlist on YouTube so you don’t miss a single artist interview.

Personal Impressions YouTube Series

Want to get an in-depth look at some of the paintings featured in the exhibition, Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art?

Introducing, the Personal Impressions YouTube series!

Watch SAM staff and other prominent figures in the local Seattle arts and culture scene share their immediate, thoughtful, and personal impressions of select pieces from the exhibition, Intimate Impressionism, on view now through January 10, 2016 at the Seattle Art Museum. Experts in areas such as fashion, frames, dance, and more will share intriguing details about the paintings that can be easily missed upon first viewing. Be sure to subscribe to the series to get updates when new videos are released.

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