User:Fashionandfibers

Rafa Esparza
Rafa Esparza was born on 1981 in Pasadena, California. Esparza lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is the son of Mexican immigrants from Durango, Mexico. His father, Ramon worked in construction for over 30 years and used to make adobe bricks in Mexico. His father would make bricks to sell and keep some to build a home. Esparza's family had to rely on his father selling bricks because that was the only way to survive. Esparza's father taught him how to make adobe brick, which created a passion to reconcile him and his father's relationship after Esparza's came out as queer. Relations between Esparza and his father weren't great. However, after Esparza became an artist and had a connection with his father through building bricks, their relationship improved. Now, Esparza regularly calls his dad when he works on art projects.

Early life and education
During in Esparza's twenties, he began to show interest in art. He said he always knew that he would be an artist, but he didn't find his voice until Esparza's started to attend East Los Angeles College, which he began to focus on performance art. His passion about art started to increase, he wanted to combine it with Asco through Latino art. Later in 2011, when he graduated from University of California, Los Angeles, he began to mark his art on campus with unique pieces of his art. He graduated UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Work
Esparza lives and works in Los Angeles and is a multidisciplinary artists whose work reveals his explores themes around family, community, society, and history. Esparza's work creates the ideologies and binary forms of identity, which shapes our social environment and norms. His work includes psychically performances and installation constructed out of adobe brick in several public areas.

Esparza is one of the 63 artists chosen by the New York’s Whitney Muster of American Art, which was a gallery made of adobe bricks inside the museum. The adobe room was made with dirt from Los Angeles River, it was used as an exhibition space by other LA-based Latino artist. His work consists of large and small sculptures that associates with the community, family, and history. He invented the show “de la Calle,” which means “of the street” as part of his exhibition. His idea of “de la Calle” is about combing elements of the outdoors into the museum, which surrounds the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Esparza titled “de la Calle” and performed it in the Santee Alley; Santee Street from Olympic Boulevard to 12th Street. The purpose of the show is to bring fashion and individuals who identify as queer together. The point of los callejones is all about fashion and because its cheap. The idea is to connect to certain things so that everyone is able to see it as one and see the type of clothes everyone is wearing.

The Perez Prize, organized in Miami by the Perez Museum Miami (PAMM) shared commitment to uplifting artist and offered a $50,000 prize, which honors artists achievement and was presented to the artist over the weekend at the museums annual Art of the Part gala. Rafa Esparza had the honor to win the prize due to his connection between personal narrative and historical explorations of arts and society. The purpose of the price is to encourage every individual to see art as an idea and imaginations.

Esparza had the honor to work with many artists, such as Sebastian Hernandez. Esparza and Hernandez performed at Perform Chinatown. Chino, indio, negro was performed near the site of the Chinese Massacre of 1971, which occurred a racial massacre of minorities. Esparza wanted to honor those who passed away and wanted his audience to understand the meaning of his project and why he chose that specific place.

Accomplishments
Here are some accomplishments Rafa Esparza received in Selected Solo Exhibitions, Grants, Group Exhibitions, Performances, and Awards:

Contact
Website: https://commonwealthandcouncil.com/us/rafa-esparza

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elrafaesparza/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/esparza_rafa?lang=en

Email: info@rafaesparzastudio.com