Candida Alvarez came of age in the Brooklyn Farragut Houses, in the 1970s. Her parents had arrived from Puerto Rico in the 50s, a few years before she was born. Alvarez showed an early flair for art history and enrolled at Fordham University. “Even though I didn’t know what an artist was for a long time,” she later said, “I did realize I was a little different from most people.” In her 20s, Alvarez’s dreamlike work, which merged city life with her Caribbean heritage, drew attention. Over time, she moved toward color theory, puzzles, and games. In 2017, six works by Alvarez were adapted by Rei Kawakubo for her “New Camouflage” collection. This exhibition surveys the New Yorker’s five-decade career. —Elena Clavarino