Marcel Pardo Ariza
Artworks
On celebration & community resilience, 2022. Site-specific photography installation.
Kin-Streets, 2020. Market Street Kiosks, November – December 2020. Organized by the SF Arts Commission. Courtesy of the artist.
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Nicki, Militia, Amoura (West Oakland). 1/8" nonglare plex face mount with a 3mm sintra back, 13’’ x 19’’, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.
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Pooja, José & Mar (West Oakland). 1/8" nonglare plex face mount with a 3mm sintra back, 13’’ x 19’’, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.
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JanpiStar (Peralta-Laney). Source: Man in sunglasses, 1977. Crawford Wayne Barton papers (1993-11). Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society, 1/8" nonglare plex face mount with a 3mm sintra back, 13’’ x 19’’, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.
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Jordanne, Jessi, Suzu, Felipe, Mireya (Mission District). Source: A group of women protesting Prop 6, 1978 Gay Freedom Day, Elaine Gay Jarvis Photographs (2018-90). Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society, 1/8" nonglare plex face mount with a 3mm sintra back, 13’’ x 19’’, 2020. Courtesy of the artist.
“This project is a way of honoring the queer folks who walked the streets we now walk in, and to celebrate the work we are all doing to keep this city at its queerest, especially in this moment in time.” —Marcel Pardo Ariza
Marcel Pardo Ariza is a trans visual artist and curator that explores the relationship of representation, kinship and queerness through constructed photographs, color sets, and installations.
Kin-Streets honors and celebrates transhistorical kinship, tenderness, and resilience in the LGBTQIA+ Bay Area community. Ariza sourced images from the GLBT Historical Society which they enlarged to life-size and rephotographed alongside numerous LGBTQIA+ folks currently living in and shaping the Bay Area. There are 18 photographs with over 60 collaborators, including dancers, artists, drag queens, performers, mentors, activists, and healers.
The mural at the front entrance to the Art Center includes various queer and trans political leaders, DJs, drag performers, activists in San Francisco: Honey Mahogany, Juanita MORE!, Aria Said, Levi Maxwell, Grace Towers, Militia Scunt, Nicki Jizz, Amoura Tesse, Frida Ibarra, Fiera Ferrari, Yasmin Rosa, and Pluto.
As part of their Artist Residency with Palo Alto Art Center, Ariza will be facilitating storytelling workshops with the Avenidas Rainbow Collective, LGBTQ seniors initiative. The workshops explore personal histories and current contexts through oral history, personal archives, photography, collage, and printing.
About the Artist
Marcel Pardo Ariza is the recipient of awards including the 2020 San Francisco Artadia Award; 2017 Tosa Studio Award; 2018-19 Alternative Exposure Grant; and a 2015 Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Award. Their work has recently been exhibited at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Richmond Art Museum; San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; Palm Springs Art Museum; and the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. Ariza is a former member of the Curatorial Council at Southern Exposure, a co-founder of Art Handlxrs, and a studio member at Minnesota Street Project.
Interview with the Artist