Art: Cosmographies by Alexis Avlamis
UPON DISCOVERING A FLOATING CORPSE [SHAWL] IN THE RIO
Families on the Rio Grande nestle in solitary ponds, tide low,
bob-huts against the wind. Search in mud, wet up to the
exposed fiddler crabs (pre-columbian before Spanish Conquistadores
they travel displaced but Puebla); they sat in families
along corner-marshes, pursuing the predicament of shuttle-liminal
footsteps & appeasing notions of the water table. One floating corpse.[Shawl]
They return—the inventory of survival mechanisms, a cousin prays to Catarina de San Juan.
An aunt’s Sari embroidered with nobility of horsemanship and brute strength.
Fishing was necessary for survival, tools, plants into beds were in reunion
with utilitarianism, agriculture and ranching. The far-off guttural sounds
that alert the coast guard, the backwoods Ranger, sinking into notebooks with statistics,
that elaborate that body’s [shawl’s] botoneria, silver buttons waiting, praying, and rebirthing life to risk death.
About the author:
Jonathan Andrew Pérez, Esq. has published poetry in Prelude, The Write Launch, Meniscus Literary Journal, Rigorous Literary Journal, Metafore Magazine, The Florida Review’s Latino/Latinx publication, Panoply Magazine, Abstract Magazine, Mud Season Review, Junto Magazine, Watermelanin (for writers of color), Cold Mountain Review’s Justice Issue, Yes Poetry, and in Silver Needle Press as poem of the week. He has poems forthcoming in The Tiny Journal, Westchester Review, the Raw Art Review, Pamplemousse, and Swimming with Elephants. Jonathan was selected by The Virginia Quarterly Review 2018 for a workshop with Jericho Brown and Cave Canem, respectively. He has won the Bowdoin Poetry Prize and Nathalie Walker Llewellyn Prize in Poetry. He has a day job as an Assistant District Attorney as a prosecutor.
Art: Cosmographies by Alexis Avlamis
In the artist’s words:
Alexis Avlamis (b.Athens 1979) received an early art instruction from Bennington College, Vermont and later on earned a BFA(hons) in Painting from the Athens School of Fine Arts. By tapping into a stream of consciousness, he creates dreamlike mindscapes aiming at a Cosmic Unity, where nature and the artifice co-exist symbiotically. Avlamis is a laureate of the International Emerging Artist Award (Drawing and Illustration category), which saw his works exhibited in Dubai and Brussels, respectively. Awards, Juried shows and competitions include the: 31st September competition, Alexandria Museum of Art, LA, (USA), 39th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Monmouth Museum, NJ, (USA), Cardinal Planes, Gallery Korea, Korean Cultural Center, New York (USA ), the Stencil Art Prize, Touring Exhibition, (Australia), The Abstract Mind, CICA Museum (Korea), Art meets Writing: Black&White, SAA Collective, Springfield, IL (USA), Bowery Gallery International Juried show, New York, (USA), Who.Are.You?, Atlantic gallery, New York (USA), 6th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner (Mixed-Media), 7th 2017 ArtSlant Prize Showcase Winner (Painting), A line with intent, ARC Gallery, Chicago (USA), Biennale Austria, blue bleu blau blu, (Vienna), Black&White, 3rd Place, Bauhaus Prairie Art Gallery, OK, (USA), Amuse Yeux, Foothills Art Center, CO, (USA), Art Kudos (USA), 26th International Miniature Show, Parklane Gallery, WA, (USA), Day Dreamers, Bg Gallery (California), 10x10x10 Tieton, (Washington), the Bloom Award, Shortlisted (Cologne), Artist Statement, CICA Museum (Korea), Anthology, Charlie Smith London (UK), the Mamut Art Project (Istanbul), the IEAA Award (Dubai and Brussels), the Dave Bown Projects, (New York), the Heart Revive, Sunshine Museum (Beijing), the 7 artists / 7 countries, Embassy of the Republic of Korea, Korean cultural service, Beijing (China), the Drawing Center’s Viewing Program (New York) and several others. He has attended artist residencies in USA, Finland and China, has been published and interviewed internationally (Art21 blog: Inside the Artist’s Studio, Jan 2010) and works may be found in private and museum collections, most notably the Djurhuus Collection, Denmark and the Henan Art Center’s collection, China. Lives and works in Athens .
