Born in 1977 in Mexico City, Alejandro Almanza Peresa received his MFA from Hunter College in New York City. Influenced by living in different parts in Mexico and the United States, Almanza grew interest in how different cultures perceive danger and risk. Almanza’s endeavors focus on the materiality concepts by challenging objects conceptually and physically in sculptures and underwater photographs and videos. He has had solo shows in different institutions like San Francisco Art Institute; Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City; Art in General, New York; Stanlee & Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, Texas; College of Wooster Art Museum, Ohio; and ChertLüdde in Berlin. His work has been featured at the Istanbul Biennial, ASU Museum, Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, Dublin Contemporary 2011, 6a Biennial de Curtibia in Brazil, El Museo del Barrio and Queens Museum, both in New York. Almanza has attended residencies at the Skowhegan and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, and he was a grant recipient of the CIFO Grant Program, the Harpo Foundation Grant Program, and the Harker Award for Interdisciplinary Studies. His work was featured in Art21 close up series. He is currently a member of La Rubia te Besa an art band project. He lives in Guadalajara, Mexico.