aquí estamos/here we are

with Marcela Pardo Ariza

Artist Bio
Marcela Pardo Ariza (b. Bogotá, Colombia) is a visual artist and curator that explores transhistorical and intergenerational kinship, alternate forms of representation while celebrating the erroneous through constructed photography, prop-like objects and handmade bending frames and installations. Ariza is the recipient of the Tosa Studio Award 2017, a Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award and an Alternative Exposure grantee (2018, 2019). Ariza holds an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a co-founder of Womxn Art Handlers and a former member of the Curatorial Council at Southern Exposure.

Follow Queer Cultural Center’s Instagram the week of June 15 – 21, 2020 to view Marcela and her guest artists latest work.

Project Statement
In thinking about the current objects that surround us while we are at home, I’ll be making a still life – a still image of this moment in time- and inviting other Bay Area artists to participate in their own version of this exercise as well.

Collaborators

Curly haired person with one side of head shaved wearing a red shirt and overalls

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Aquí estamos / here we are is an online exhibition, an act of collective solidarity, regeneration and celebration between queer artists from the Bay Area and Puerto Rico redefining the domestic space. Under the circumstances of the shelter-in-place in the Bay Area and the lockdown in Puerto Rico, the question of what a domestic space is, what it should be for and what it should do, has shifted. Aquí estamos / here we are fosters conversations and collaborations amongst artists from two places that are home to joyful, persevering, and active communities. As queers of color, re-imagining our futures includes rejecting the past as “the normal” and questioning our own relationships with what is considered a domestic, private or safe space.

Once a week throughout June, artists will share work through intimate online conversations and a virtual exhibition that will take over Queer Cultural Center’s Instagram. They are creating work by rethinking what a domestic space is and could be. At the end of June, all the artists will gather to have an open conversation with the show’s curator on how we reimagine collective futures from a domestic space. These creations and conversations will be in a digital publication available later this year.

View more work from the exhibition at X-Patterns

MORE FROM THE EXHIBITION

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

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Instagram takeover
June 8 - 14

Artist conversation online
June 10, 2020
Curly haired person with one side of head shaved wearing a red shirt and overalls

Marcela Pardo Ariza

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Instagram takeover
June 15 - 21

Artist conversation online
June 18, 2020
Brown curly haired person holding their hair up in black short sleeved jumpsuit standing against backdrop of green leaves in an outdoor space

Pati Cruz

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Instagram takeover
June 22 - 28

Artist conversation online
June 25, 2020
Speckled halftone background text says Puerto Rico and the Bay Area: A Cuir / Queer Conversation

Puerto Rico & the Bay Area: A Cuir/Queer Conversation
June 30, 2020
5pm (PST)

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Aquí estamos / here we are artists and collaborators join curator, Juan Carlos Rodríguez Rivera, for a live online conversation. How do we imagine collective futures from a domestic space? What privileges does that entail? How have shelter-in-place and lockdowns affected each individual artists' practice?

aquí estamos / here we are
Virtual Exhibition
June 1- 30, 2020

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An online exhibition paired with intimate artist talks that launch every Wednesday in June and weekly Instagram takeovers by featured artists. This work is an act of collective solidarity, regeneration, and celebration between queer artists from the Bay Area and Puerto Rico redefining the domestic space.