Born in La Plata, Argentina 1962
Lives and works in New York
Alejandro Dron was born and raised in La Plata, Argentina in 1962.
He lives in Jersey city and works at Mana Contemporary.
Dron moved to New York in 1996 when he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to pursue a MFA in Computer Arts at SVA (School of Visual Arts).
His work has been exhibited in several galleries and museums around the globe such as the Museum Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain), the CCR - Centro Cultural Recoleta (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and several sculpture biennials in the United States.
In 2016 he was awarded the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant.
Link to a pdf of CV
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1962
Lives and works in New York City
Dron started his education at the age of 10 with sculptor Oscar Zarate in La Plata, Argentina. He continued with drawing and painting classes with Enrique Sobisch and studied architecture for one year at La Plata University, Argentina. His interests in European, Asian and Pre-Columbian art made him travel extensively through Europe, Israel, Peru and Mexico. In his 20's, his studies on Kabbalah/Jewish mysticism connected him with Madi, the art movement that proposed pure invention. From 1995/96 in Buenos Aires he thoroughly studied its theory and worked closely with Madi's founder, the artist Gyula Kosice. During those years Dron also had contacts with Yaacov Agam and his works as well. In 1996 Dron came to New York to persue a Master in Fine Arts MFA/ Computer Art at School of Visual Arts thanks to a Visual Arts Grant from the Fulbright Commission/Fondo Nacional de las Artes Argentina. Dron went on to teach at SVA and the ITP Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU Tisch. He was included in the 1997 Madi Retrospective at the Museum Reina Sofia in Madrid. In 2003, Dron was nominated for a Rokefeller Grant in New Media. He was also in that year named Best Sculptor of the year on the Hudson Valley by the Times Record. His work was reviewed in art magazines and in various newspapers among them the New York Times. More recently in 2016 he received the Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Grant.
TITULO
Texts by
Exhibition catalogue
Italian and English
MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, 2017
Manfredi Editions
ISBN 9788899519360 ?
NOTE:
Dron spent his youth working, studying in Argentina as well travelling the world. He settled down in NY 20 years ago. After graduating at SVA NY / 1998 MFA in Computer Art he did not pursue professional honors or prestige as a careerist, but instead unadulterated knowledge in the arts. Though he’s been focused on this difficult path he’s been getting some artworld recognition like a Fulbright Grant and more recently the 2016 Adolph Gottlieb Grant.
During his first years in US he engaged in the actual plannification and building of complex kinetic sculptures and then large scale ones as well as continuing building the grounds where to develop his art in relation with the ‘jewish question’ as other jewish artists like El Lissitsky, Agam and Kitaj, tried before him.
While continuing to deepen in his art and refusing to compromise it in any way he continued to develop himself as a theorist and visionary artist. In doing so he began to contribute to the arts in a very specific way though not yet fully visualized. His artistic achievements are starting to impact on his surroundings even though he is not part of the artworld’s theatre.
He’s been exploring the depths of the the jewish question and it’s smaller and most complex details. Refining the way techniques and concepts are executed in order to create a situation of ‘oneness’, which is the ultimate goal of judaism and a key understanding to succeed in life at large and in any of our practices.
The place Dron has created for himself is entirely outside of what any atomized ranking system or out of spin art market could assess. Dron’s enormous and silent achievements, his personal sacrifices, the depth of understanding and level of proficiency he’s learned and his skills makes him unclassifiable.