About

Plastic becomes nature and nature becomes plastic -David Almeida

Through appropriation, irony and paradox my work focuses on consumerism. This interest began while documenting discarded house goods in the streets of Miami Beach, showing through those objects the transient life in that coastal community. Later, using as reference the meaning and visual elements of Vanitas paintings, scientific prints of the natural world and dioramas I’ve emphasized society’s value of the artificial over the natural, the fake over the real.

Through my current body of work I am exploring a consequence of consumerism, pollution. I’m particularly interested in plastic, a new material that was not in existence one hundred years ago though now found everywhere. As this manmade material is increasingly found in nature, transformed by the elements into microscopic particles, and interferes and integrates into the life of many species, one can say that plastic becomes nature and nature becomes plastic. 

BIO

Originally from Lisbon, Portugal, in 1998 I moved to London, which is where my interest in photography began. I currently live and work in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Others cities I’ve called home include Miami, Nashville, Chicago and Amsterdam. I’m the recipient of various grants and fellowships including the State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship, the Artist Enhancement Grant, and the Artist Access Grant.  In 2010 I was awarded the West Prize. Some of the venues that have exhibited my work include the Heckscher Museum of Art, the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science, the West Collection, Mattie Kelly Arts Center, the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, and GEISAI Miami 2007.