Book Description

Honorable mention for the 2009 AAM Museum Publications Design Competition San Antonio-based artist Dario Robleto is well known for his astonishing hand-crafted objects: works that reflect his intense investigatioin of such wide-ranging topics as science, music, popular culture, philosophy, war, and American history. Utilizing a lengthy roster of bizarre and disparate materials--including melted and pulverized vinyl records, artifacts gleaned from battlefields, rare herbs and minerals, and even prehistoric fossils and human bones--Robleto excavates conceptually-loaded elements from the past. He then seamlessly combines and refashions these potent details into poetic works that speak volumes about histoy and nostalgia, as well as concerns about the present condition of our world and its future. The resulting works are much more than just the sum of their constituent parts or factual interpretations of particular events and personalities; rather, they are sincere and emotional mediations on love, loss, spirituality, and ultimately, healing. Alloy of Love chronicles a decade of Robleto's works with formal "portraits" and details of his sculptures and collages, along with song lyrics and poems associated with each work. Ian Berry is assiciate director and Malloy Curator of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College. The other contributors include Elizabeth Dunbar, Michael Duncan, Jennifer Michael Hecht, Robin Held, Ginny Kollak, and Therese Recio.