User:Alison.xo9/sandbox

Background
Rafa Esparza was born in 1982 to Mexican immigrant parents and raised in Pasadena, California. He is an American performance artist whose work is usually performance art or building installations. His work usually involves themes such as gender, ethnicity, sexuality, the environment etc. Esparza expresses his life, beliefs, and ideas through this performance art. He not only expresses himself with art, but with fashion. He mixes streetwear with elegance in his way. He thinks of fashion as a way for people, especially those who are apart of the LGBTQ+ community, to express themselves.

Education
While in his early twenties, he pursued performance art while attending East Los Angeles College. Esparza's introduction to performance art and installation building came through the Latino art collective Asco. His passion for performance art deepened during his time at UCLA, where he left his artistic mark on the campus with various pieces. He successfully earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from UCLA in 2011. Post-graduation, Esparza relocated to Brooklyn, where he continues to push artistic boundaries, question societal narratives, and explore themes of identity and queerness. His work stands as a powerful blend of personal storytelling and contemporary expression.

Accomplishments

 * Staring at the Sun, solo exhibition at MASS MoCA; he covered the white gallery space with adobe bricks to represent immigrants that came to America.
 * Performed in Dorian Woods “O” video
 * Collaborated with artist Casills on Independence Day 2020 and created "In Plain Sight", which was an art piece that supported the abolition of prejudice against immigrants and mass detention.
 * De la Calle.jpg la calle, solo museum presentation at the Institute of Contemporary Art
 * Written about in LA Times Magazine, the performance of “Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser.”
 * Collaborated with artist Beatriz Cortez at Hammer Museum
 * Work featured in Artforum Magazine “Material Histories”
 * Public Art project in LA “Landscapes for People”
 * Exhibited “Tierra” at the Whitney Biennial in 2017
 * Golden State performance

Art Displays
Institutions Esparza's work is on display:


 * Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, CA (2013)
 * Clockshop, Bowtie Project, Los Angeles (2014)
 * Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, CA (2015)
 * Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena (2015)
 * Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016)
 * Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NV (2017)
 * ArtPace, San Antonio, TX (2018)
 * Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018)
 * Performance Space New York and the Ellipse, Washington, D.C. (2019)
 * Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles (2020)
 * Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles (2021)
 * Art Basel Miami Beach, (2022)
 * MASS MoCA, (2019)