Fernando Luis Alvarez

Fernando Luis Alvarez is a Colombian-American art gallerist, artist, activist, patron of the arts, and philanthropist based in Stamford, Connecticut. He is known as the founder of his eponymous art gallery, Alvarez Gallery. He is also the founder of Clementina Arts Foundation, The Spoon Movement, The Curtain Movement, and vice-chair of The Global Recovery Movement.

Early life
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, but raised by his grandmother Clementina in Colombia, Alvarez returned to the States at age 12. He has said that he began developing his passion for art in his aunt's bathroom, where he used her make-up to paint.

Education and business work
Fernando Luis Alvarez studied from elementary to high school in Greenwich, Connecticut. He then attended Richmond, The American International University in London, where he studied international business, finance, political science, and economics.

While in school, he completed an internship at Merrill Lynch.

Alvarez founded the business development firm Alvarez & Partners soon after leaving school in 1997. The company focused on identifying, funding, and helping manage internet start-ups and other technology-related enterprises. Throughout his career, Alvarez took on multiple senior-level positions, acting as CEO for Meetgate, one of the first corporate instant messaging companies.

In 1999, he built an ad agency called APe-Shop that outsourced creative execution to Latin America. Alvarez sold the company in 2005, traveled for a while, worked as a senior business analyst, and began a career in the art world.

Background of the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery
Fernando Luis Alvarez worked for the estate of 20th-century collector and gallerist Allan Stone. There, he managed the late-collector's vast art collection and assisted Stone's widow, Clare Chester Stone, in their home.

In 2008, Alvarez continued working as an artist by opening the Greenwich Soho Factory in Byram, Greenwich, CT. where he showed his work and a small selection of artist friends in a 5,000 sq. ft. space.

Alvarez Gallery
In December 2009, Alvarez opened a gallery in Stamford, CT. He completed an entire relocation to the newly named Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery by June 2010, ultimately closing his Greenwich studio.

Alvarez Gallery states its mission is to "(...) 'build artists' careers from the doors in, and community from the doors out." The Gallery represents emerging artists and has a collection of mid-20th-century contemporary and modern artists.

The Gallery is behind the Joseph Kosuth solo exhibition at Musée du Louvre. It sponsors Kosuth's work "Ni Appearance ni Illusion." The Gallery has worked with or maintained a professional relationship with institutions such as Musée du Louvre, Tate Museum, Frieze Art Fair, Sotheby's, Christie's, Neuberger Museum of Art, MASS MoCa, Housatonic Museum of Art, Oglethorpe University Museum of Art and Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. In September 2012, the State of Connecticut cited the Fernando Luis Alvarez Gallery as one of the nation's most innovative contemporary art galleries.

On December 17, 2014 — five years after opening— the Gallery received a citation from U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal for its contributions to the Arts.

In 2017, Alvarez Gallery was the First and only North American Gallery to ever represent Italian sculptor Arturo Di Modica (1941–2021), creator of NYC's 2nd most-visited landmark, the Charging Bull of Wall Street. In December 2018, Alvarez announced that his gallery would be closed beginning January 2019. Between the years 2019–2020, Alvarez Gallery opened its digital space alvarezgallery.com.

Artists Representation
The Alvarez Gallery is known for its approach to growing artists' careers and selecting artists.

Represented artists include:


 * Antuan Rodriguez
 * Carlos Bautista Biernnay
 * Eduardo Vargas-Rico
 * Eugene Agyei
 * Jena Thomas
 * Joe Bogisnki
 * Vincent Serbin

Kudos Curators
Kudos Curators is the research and curatorial program created for Alvarez Gallery. It is a digital and physical platform designed to highlight the work of curators for contemporary artist(s).

Kudos Shed
Fernando Luis Alvarez is also the founder of Kudos Shed, an extension of the Kudos Curators platform, and provides an in-person, immersive experience with a focused curatorial idea. The concept relies on one curator, one artist, one artwork. All housed in a humble shed. The first project was launched in Cannondale Village, Wilton, Connecticut on September 24, 2022.

Artist
Fernando Luis Alvarez is a Colombian-American contemporary artist known for his dramatic brushstrokes, trademark red Lips,  and performances.

Alvarez has worked on commercial projects with Saks 5th Avenue and HEI Hotels and Resorts.

Alvarez cites his inspiration as coming from artists such as Keith Haring (whom he met and followed as Haring tagged the New York subways), Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Basquiat, Warhol, Arman, and Frank Stella.

Activist
In June 2018, Fernando Luis Alvarez executed a guerrilla installations with Domenic Esposito as part of the Opioid: Express Yourself! exhibition. This became The Spoon Movement, whose mission is to draw attention to the opioid crisis. The act involved temporarily installing a 10-foot long, 800-pound steel spoon representing a "heroin spoon". It was deposited in front of the headquarters of Purdue Pharma for their role in the opioid endemic in the United States. Alvarez later said that he selected Purdue Pharma office premises to emphasize legal scrutiny the company faced with its opioid painkiller OxyContin regarding its unscrupulous prescribing practices, which contributed to increased patient misuse and the opioid crisis situation. Purdue Pharma claimed they ceased promoting the drug by February of that year and significantly reduced the "sales force" in June, just before the incident occurred.

Alvarez was charged with "a criminal misdemeanor and a felony" for the installation of the spoon sculpture and was arrested. The sculpture was confiscated but later returned to Esposito. Alvarez was allowed to participate in an accelerated rehabilitation program, and was cleared of the charges because he stayed away from Purdue Pharma for one year. In 2019, while dealing with thousands of lawsuits, Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy, and consequently went through a restructuring.

As an extension of the Spoon Movement, Alvarez initiated The Curtain Movement in December 2020, another form of guerrilla installation activism. Curtains are a work of protest art against those who shield dangerous actors in our society. The Curtains seek to spotlight the enablers obscuring wrongdoers who harm others for financial or political gain. As part of The Curtain Movement, in March 2021, a curtain was installed in front of the Purdue Pharma headquarters which read "FDA's Dr. Janet Woodcock must go!" alleging FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock as one of the "enablers of the opioid epidemic" and to "dissuade the Biden administration from nominating Dr. Janet Woodcock for FDA commissioner."

Alvarez currently co-chairs The Global Recovery Movement (TGRM) with Dan Schneider. An international coalition fighting the opioid/fentanyl epidemic, TGRM's mission is to flip the discrimination of the criminal justice approach to substance use towards a proven public health solution.

Philanthropy
From 2013 to 2015, Alvarez sought to turn around the afterschool programs provided by the Yerwood Center a Stamford, CT non-profit organization named after Joyce Yerwood and known for working with disadvantaged youth. Alvarez became chairman of the board in 2013. He was responsible for removing the team managing the center, which had been under financial distress for the last decade.

From 2012 to 2017, he served on the board of the Stamford Downtown.

In 2015, Alvarez founded the non-profit organization Clementina Arts Foundation in tribute to his grandmother. The organization is known for providing educational programs for kids about arts, Kid Contemporary and supports for the emerging artists Sprouting Spaces.

Sprouting Spaces which is a Clementina Arts Foundation unit that runs three strategic cultural units. On April 25, 2023, Alvarez appeared on Fox61 in Connecticut to discuss the 2023 CT Post Mall Sprouting Spaces.