Alvarez’s charcoal drawings, diptychs, polyptychs, and sculptural installations are deeply rooted in close observation and the alchemy of color, with a focus on weaving discrete units of information into mysterious compositions. Her economical gestures, boldness of palettes, and conceptual approaches to painting were impacted by relationships to some of contemporary art’s most towering forces, including Jack Whitten, Mel Bochner, Sol Lewitt, and David Hammons. A dancer of mambo and cha-cha, Alvarez’s works have a choreographed quality, one that balances spontaneity and structure and refuses strict interpretations.

With a vocabulary including roofing nails, nylon twine, PVC mesh, and aluminum, Alvarez takes a bilingual approach to material and medium. Through methods like stacking and stretching—and a long engagement with printmaking, drawing, and photography—she has pushed painting and sculpture into new domains. Drawing from art history, memory, and most importantly, her lived experience, Alvarez’s approach to abstraction as a form of storytelling challenges the pigeonholing of Latine artists as such. Her work probes the connections of everyday life to explore not only Puerto Ricanness and diasporic experience, but what it means to be human and an artist.