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ARTURO ALONZO SANDOVAL
(American, born 1942)

Cityscape No. 6, 1978
Machine stitched and interlaced 35 mm microfilm, paper, opalescent Mylar, Velcro, and eyelets
Gift of C. J. Pressma and partial purchase 2000.15

A professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Arturo Alonzo Sandoval is an internationally recognized fiber artist who began working with contemporary industrial materials during the 1970s. Cityscape No. 6 employs microfilm, Mylar, and Velcro in a traditional weaving technique. Combining industrial materials and traditional techniques, Sandoval developed an abstract art form that doubles as a metaphor for our world. Cityscape No.6. seems suggestive of the ordered disorder and information overload that accompanies contemporary urban life. While the film is structurally rectilinear and austere, the details within the frames remain banal and ordinary, often depicting people. Suggesting gridiron street structures or the facades of glass office towers, Cityscape No.6 resonates with modernity. Sandoval cunningly creates an image that embodies the industrial wasteland through his use of synthetic materials and yet seduces our vision through its dynamic beauty.

To see a work by Arturo Alonzo Sandoval in the collection of the University of Kentucky Art Museum, click here.