Álava’s art projects have been described as “new relational art” and “resonance and trust in contemporary art.” Due to the intersection nature of her projects between art and education, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington nominated Álava’s project “Verbal Interaction in Museums”, based on Alava’s Trilogy TELL ME-FIND ME-TRUST ME, for a 2011 SARF Fellowship. The Trilogy was awarded a Peter Reed Foundation Fellowship.

During the first decade of our XXI Century, Álava’s roles of being simultaneously an artist and a museum educator were being interpreted differently by the public and the institutions. These synergies were investigated by the artist during the making of participatory art projects curated from 2008 to 2010. In 2013, the education departments of MoMA and Guggenheim Museums, questioned the nature of Alava art projects, wondering if a performance artist and curator with a public image on social media could also work as an educator within the context of an art institution. The result of these conversations between Álava and the museums was the birth of new hybrid programs which intersect art and education in several institutions.

In 2013 Alava curated the art project TELL ME THE TRUTH 2008-2013 in the form of a bilingual English/Spanish book  (limited edition, soft cover, 500 copies) published by GEMA ALAVA STUDIO. (A collectable hard cover edition published by GEMA ALAVA STUDIO is available at Amazon).

Álava’s documentation of this process is the foundation of her workshops and seminar series entitled “Inspiring Audiences” which broadens the definition of “museum”, “surveillance/privacy” as well as “artist’s practice.”

Álava’s first experience of this process is the foundation of her Trilogy. Álava’s commitment to continuing the conversation with regards to the importance of supporting an artists’ unique vision and encouraging the development of an artist’s unique potential is the foundation of her global project HEXAGONS.

To see the evolution of Álava’s art projects since 2002, go to WORKS