BIOGRAPHY
Alejandro Durán is an artist who transforms international trash washing ashore on Mexico's Caribbean coast into aesthetic yet unsettling artworks, awakening viewers to the threat of plastic pollution. His long-term project, “Washed Up: Transforming a Trashed Landscape,” uses photography and installation to explore the complex intersections of humanity and nature, highlighting the pervasive impact of consumer culture on the natural world. Durán engages audiences through environmental, community-based art-making workshops and speaking engagements. As National Geographic’s Becky Harlan noted, “A gorgeous UNESCO World Heritage site has a serious problem with ocean trash, and artist Alejandro Durán wants to inspire us into action.”
Born in Mexico City in 1974, of Mexican and American descent, Durán currently splits his time between Brooklyn, New York, and Sian Ka’an, Mexico, where he continues to gather trash for his project. He holds an MA in Teaching from Tufts University and an MFA in Poetry from the New School for Social Research. As an educator, Durán has taught photography and video classes at The Museum of Modern Art and the International Center of Photography.
Durán received a 2019 Creative Capital Award and served as Hunter College’s Artist-in-Residence in 2014-15. His work has been featured at the Weltkulturen Museum in Germany, the Mt. Rokko International Photography Festival in Japan, and Basta con la Plastica, Italy’s first Ocean Awareness Week. “Washed Up” has been published in National Geographic and Time Magazine, and appears in the books Art & Ecology Now, Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book, and the forthcoming The History of Art: A Global View by Thames & Hudson.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024 - World Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, Trade and Environment Week
2024 - School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA, Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers
2024 - Focus Art Fair, New York, NY, USA, Washed Up
2024 - Artlune, Delhi, India, Against the Grain
2023 - Mexican Cultural Institute, Miami, FL, USA, Seas of Sorrow 2024
2023 - Miami University, Oxford, OH, The Art of Environmental Awareness
2023 - Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, Alabama, USA, Border Waters
2023 - Weltkulturen Museum, Frankfurt, Germany, Healing: Life in Balance 2023
2023 - Tacoma Ocean Fest, Tacoma, Washington, Washed Up
2020 - Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, NY, USA, eARTh: Artists as Activists
2019 - Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, D.C., USA, Single-Use Planet
2019 - Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA, Environmental Impact
2019 - SFO Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA, Washed Up
2019 - Greenwich Academy, Greenwich, CT, USA Washed Up
2019 - Myrtle Beach Art Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC, USA, Can’t You Sea: Ocean Plastic Artifacts
2018 - Basta con la Plastica, Sardinia, Italy, Washed Up
2018 - Art With Me, Tulum, Mexico, Washed Up
2017 - Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT, USA, Washed Up
2017 - MACLA, San Jose, CA, USA, Temperature Check: Body of Evidence
2017 - Granary Art Center, Ephraim, UT, USA, Washed Up
2016 - RMIT University Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, Ocean Imaginaries
2016 - Angkor Photo Festival, Siem Reap, Cambodia, Washed Up
2016 - Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, Wonders of the World
2016 - Mt. Rokko International Photography Festival, Kobe, Japan, Washed Up
2016 - Cheryl Hazan Gallery, New York, NY, USA, Mise-en-scène
2016 - Wilson College, Chambersburg, PA, USA, Washed Up
2015 - Art Publix, Ville de Montréal, Canada, Washed Up
2015 - The Fence, Boston, Brooklyn, Houston, Atlanta, USA, Washed Up
2015 - Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM, USA, The Curve: A Global View of New Photography
2015 - Verve Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA, Cause & Effect
2015 - Museo de la Basura, Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, Mexico, Washed Up
2014 - Habana Outpost, Brooklyn, NY, USA, Washed Up
2014 - Hunter College, New York, NY, USA, Washed Up
2012 - Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Staten Island, NY, USA, Fluid: Essential for Life
2012 - Galería Octavio Paz, Mexican Cultural Institute of New York, NY, USA, Washed Up
2012 - Calumet Gallery, New York, NY, USA, En Foco New Works #15
AWARDS
2019 - Creative Capital Award
2018 - Art With Me Social Impact Award
2016 - Nominated for Prix Pictet Prize: Space
2016 - Nominated for Prix Thun for Art & Ethics
2015 - Photolucida’s Critical Mass, Top 50
2015 - Center Project Launch, Juror’s Choice Award
2015 - Nominated for Prix Pictet Prize: Disorder
2014 - Fundación Bancomer, Fondo de Apoyo a las Artes
2014 - Nominated for Prix Pictet Prize: Consumption
2011 - En Foco New Works #15 Award
SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2023 - Foundation House, Climate and Conflict Convening, Greenwich, CT
2019 - TED at We The Future Event, New York, NY
2019 - Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
2019 - Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY
2019 - Luxembourg Sustainability Forum, Luxembourg
2018 - Art With Me Tulum, Mexico
2018 - Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT
2014 - Hunter College, New York, NY
PUBLICATIONS
2026 - The History of Art: A Global View, Thames & Hudson, United Kingdom (upcoming)
2023 - Transforming Chaos: Dialogue With Environmental Artist Alejandro Duran, Museum Week, USA
2023 - The Climate Book by Greta Thunberg, Penguin Press, United Kingdom
2023 - Academia: Pollution, The Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
2019 - Talking Trash: Cultural Uses of Waste, Vanderbilt University Press, USA
2017 - Space, teNeues, Germany
2016 - Photo Viz, Gestalten, Berlin, Germany
2015 - Unexpected Art, Chronicle Books, USA
2014 - Art & Ecology Now, Thames & Hudson, United Kingdom
2013 - Land Art, Palette Editions, France
SELECTED PRESS
2024 - Museumweek, “Transforming Chaos”
2024 - Harpar’s Bazaar Turkey, “Artistic Portraits”
2023 - Newsweek, “Climate Change Through Art’s Lens“
2023 - Academia, The Polish Academy of Sciences, “Pollution”
2018 - The Paris Review, “Land Forms”
2016 - National Geographic, “This Is Not A Mirage: Colorful Art Installations That Delight, Then Horrify”
2016 - Time Magazine, “13 Artists Who Turned Ocean Trash Into Amazing Art”
2015 - Wired, “Mexico’s Ugly Ocean Trash Transformed Into Treasure”
2015 - Colossal, “Washed Up: Alejandro Duran’s Site-Specific Found Plastic and Trash Installations”
2015 - Gizmodo, “Artist’s Trash Exhibitions Depict A Planet Colonized By Plastic”
2015 - Huffington Post, “Temporary Trash Artworks Put Our Oceans Waste In Perspective”
2015 - ABC News, “Alejandro Duran’s Transforming A Trashed Landscape Series”
2013 - El Diario, “Artista de Brooklyn Transforma Basura En Arte”
2012 - Die Zeit, “Alles Plastik, Oder Was?”
SELECTED TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2005-2012 - The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Video & Photography Educator
2007-2012 - International Center of Photography, New York, Museum Educator
EDUCATION
2001 - The New School, New York, NY, Master of Fine Arts – Creative Writing, Poetry
1998 - Tufts University, Master of Arts - Teaching
1997 - Tufts University, Bachelor of Arts - English