ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
POETRY CURATOR:
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Nikolai Garcia grew up in South Central Los Angeles; currently works with homeless youth in East Hollywood; and has been sleeping in Compton for the last 15 years. His poems have been published in various journals and anthologies, and his first chapbook, Nuclear Shadows of Palm Trees, was released by DSTL Arts. He’s co-host for, "Trenches Full of Poets," a reading series in Long Beach. Sometimes he makes friends on social media: @hellokommie
Curator's Message: "Photography and poetry are cousins. They are related in that, when done correctly, both can capture a moment in time that leaves an impression on the viewer/reader. To me, the task of co-curator was the opportunity to help facilitate a big family reunion of relatives that have never met each other before. The reward is in enjoying two art forms complement each other, making them stronger, and hopefully leaving the viewer/reader, with a lot to think about." -Nikolai Garcia |
POETS:
bridgette bianca (she/her) is a poet and professor from South Central Los Angeles. Her debut book, be/trouble, was published by Writ Large Press/ The Accomplices in 2020.
IG @bridgettebianca
Venmo @bridgette-bianca
IG @bridgettebianca
Venmo @bridgette-bianca
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Jessica Ceballos (she/they) is the daughter of magicians, granddaughter of a dragonfly and great granddaughter of a brown bear. She also just launched @alternativefield, a poetry library, press, and resource center.
Based in Los Angeles, CA. IG @pochagalore Twitter @msoedipamass |
How To Pull Apart The Earth
notacult.media/books/p/earth
Or send Karla a direct message on IG to receive a signed copy.
notacult.media/books/p/earth
Or send Karla a direct message on IG to receive a signed copy.
Karla Cordero (she/her) is a descendant of the Chichimeca people from Northern Mexico, a Chicana poet, educator, and ARTtivist, raised along the borderlands of Calexico, CA. She is a three-time Pushcart nominee and offered fellowships from VONA, Macondo, CantoMundo, The Loft Literary Center, and Pink Door Retreat. Karla teaches creative writing and composition at San Diego City College and MiraCosta College, receiving recognitions such as the San Diego State University Global Diversity Award and Associate Faculty of the Year for education and social justice.
Karla is the editor of SpitJournal an online literary review for poetry and social justice and the CFO and Social Justice Equity Coordinator for the non-profit Glassless Minds, an open mic venue in Oceanside, CA, serving historically underserved youth. Her poems have appeared and forthcoming in The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4. LatiNEXT Anthology, PANK Magazine, Latino Book Review, among other publications. Karla is the author of the chapbook, Grasshoppers Before Gods (Dancing Girl Press 2016) and her first full length collection titled, How To Pull Apart The Earth (NOT A CULT. 2018) is a 2019 San Diego Book Award winner and awarding-winning finalist for the 2019 International Book Awards and 2020 International Latino Book Awards. You can follow her work @karlaflaka13.
karlacordero.com
Venmo @Karla-Cordero-11
PayPal karla.cordero20@gmail.com
Karla is the editor of SpitJournal an online literary review for poetry and social justice and the CFO and Social Justice Equity Coordinator for the non-profit Glassless Minds, an open mic venue in Oceanside, CA, serving historically underserved youth. Her poems have appeared and forthcoming in The BreakBeat Poets Volume 4. LatiNEXT Anthology, PANK Magazine, Latino Book Review, among other publications. Karla is the author of the chapbook, Grasshoppers Before Gods (Dancing Girl Press 2016) and her first full length collection titled, How To Pull Apart The Earth (NOT A CULT. 2018) is a 2019 San Diego Book Award winner and awarding-winning finalist for the 2019 International Book Awards and 2020 International Latino Book Awards. You can follow her work @karlaflaka13.
karlacordero.com
Venmo @Karla-Cordero-11
PayPal karla.cordero20@gmail.com
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Brian Dunlap (he/him) is a native Angeleño who still lives in Los Ángeles. He explores and captures the city’s stories that are hidden in plain sight. He is the author of the chapbook Concrete Paradise (2018) from Finishing Line Press. Dunlap is the winner of a Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize from december magazine judged by former Los Ángeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez. His poems, book reviews and nonfiction have been published in PacificREVIEW, CCM-Entropy, California Quarterly, Dryland, and L.A. Parent, among others. He runs the blog site losangelesliterature.wordpress.com, a resource to explore L.A.’s vast literary culture.
briansdunlap.wordpress.com facebook.com/brian.dunlap2 |
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Ellie Lopez (she/her) is a storyteller from Tracy CA. Her writing has been featured in Dryland Issue 9, Marias at Sampaguitas, Resurrection Mag, & Brown Girl Travels. When she's not ear hustling for the best chismes, she's writing stories on her blog mexicanahermosa.wordpress.com
IG @lamexicanahermosa Twitter @missellielopez Venmo @missellielopez |
Mauricio 'Soul on Fire' Moreno (he/him) is a 1st generation Colombian-American artist and writer, originally from Elizabeth, New Jersey. He moved to California to fulfill his life mission of being a writer and sharing the stories of others to bring readers closer together and heal the world.
His work has been published in Conchas Y Café, a Los Angeles-based quarterly zine published by DSTL Arts, as well as Intercultural Press, The Pandemic Poetry Anthology, Resurrection Press, and No Tender Fences.
He is currently working on a novel and is also in the process of publishing his first collection of poetry.
When he is not writing, he can be found somewhere in the desert, or Long Beach saving stray pets with his wife.
Based in Long Beach, CA.
almainsaciable.com
IG @soul_onf_ire
Twitter @soul_onf_ire
His work has been published in Conchas Y Café, a Los Angeles-based quarterly zine published by DSTL Arts, as well as Intercultural Press, The Pandemic Poetry Anthology, Resurrection Press, and No Tender Fences.
He is currently working on a novel and is also in the process of publishing his first collection of poetry.
When he is not writing, he can be found somewhere in the desert, or Long Beach saving stray pets with his wife.
Based in Long Beach, CA.
almainsaciable.com
IG @soul_onf_ire
Twitter @soul_onf_ire
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Mia (she/they)
Santa Zorrita...Indigena...Muxer Poeta...Bala Perdida...Nepantlera Based in National (Nasty) City, CA. IG: MiVidaVixen |
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gathering grandmothers' bones
karoska.com/book
karoska.com/book
Karo Ska (she/they) is a South Asian & Eastern European non-binary femme poet, living on occupied Tongva Land. They migrated here in 1996 from Warsaw, Poland. Anti-capitalist & anti-authoritarian, they find joy where they can. Some of their other work appears in Dryland Lit, Resurrection Magazine, the Intercultural Press, Marías at Sampaguitas, and Ayaskala Magazine. Their first chapbook, "gathering grandmothers' bones" was released on February 29th, 2020. For updates, follow them on instagram @karoo_skaa or check out their website karoska.com.
Twitter @karo_ska
Venmo @karoska
Twitter @karo_ska
Venmo @karoska
Poetry collection "PRIMATES FROM AN ARCHIPELAGO"
Born in Zamboanga, Philippines in 1969, poet and independent film & literary curator Irene Suico Soriano (she/her) immigrated to the United States in 1981. She is the author of the poetry collection, Primates from an Archipelago (Rabbit Fool Press, 2017) and Safehouses (Disorient, 1998). Irene founded LA’s first Asian Pacific American literary reading series Wrestling Tigers at the Japanese American National Museum and coordinated the series from 1994- 1998. She was featured in the LA Times in 2000 for her role in co-curating the NEA funded World Beyond Poetry Festival that featured over 100+ poets from the diverse communities of Los Angeles. She has curated film programs for the Echo Park Film Center, Filipino American National Historical Society and has served in various film festival shorts programming committees including the Los Angeles Film Festival, Film Independent, Outfest and the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Irene will be the Artist/Activist-in-Residence at Pitzer College's Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies in the Fall of 2021 and will be co-teaching a Diasporic Filipinx Aesthetics and Poetics class with Professor Todd Honma. Mum to Max (schnoodle), partner to Evan, all three call the San Fernando Valley their home. #adoptdontshop #endoflifepetdoula #antivivisection #blm
Based in San Fernando Valley, CA.
about.me/eskinaeksena
IG @tresmarix @archipelagopoem
About Primates from an Archipelago:
(Rabbit Fool Press) $20
In this cinematic collection of poetry, Irene Suico Soriano unravels threads of silence and oppression. Primates from an Archipelago traces lineages on geographic and personal islands where memories and dreams are synonymous. Balanced with official documentation such as passports, birth and death certificates, and membership cards, the poems also speak the languages of uncertainties and multiple truths. The collection travels from homeland exile and loss in the Philippines, to the author’s origin story in Zamboanga, on to sites where experience and education have shaped her world view, and finally to Los Angeles, the city of settlement and fractured pasts. Mythical and intimate, Primates from an Archipelago illustrates the sad beauty that lies in the gaps. To order, email poet at irenesuicosoriano@gmail.com
Based in San Fernando Valley, CA.
about.me/eskinaeksena
IG @tresmarix @archipelagopoem
About Primates from an Archipelago:
(Rabbit Fool Press) $20
In this cinematic collection of poetry, Irene Suico Soriano unravels threads of silence and oppression. Primates from an Archipelago traces lineages on geographic and personal islands where memories and dreams are synonymous. Balanced with official documentation such as passports, birth and death certificates, and membership cards, the poems also speak the languages of uncertainties and multiple truths. The collection travels from homeland exile and loss in the Philippines, to the author’s origin story in Zamboanga, on to sites where experience and education have shaped her world view, and finally to Los Angeles, the city of settlement and fractured pasts. Mythical and intimate, Primates from an Archipelago illustrates the sad beauty that lies in the gaps. To order, email poet at irenesuicosoriano@gmail.com
PHOTOGRAPHERS:
(photo by Courtney Coles)
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Nica Aquino (b. 1990, Tongva Land) (she/her) is a practicing visual artist and curator. She received her BFA in Photo from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR) and her MA in Contemporary Visual Culture from the School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom). Her work has been shown locally, nationally and internationally, and she has been awarded grants by the California Arts Council and Eastside Arts Initiative for her curatorial and community engagement programming. She is currently living and working in Northeast Los Angeles.
nicaaquino.com/bio IG @nica_aquino Venmo @nicaaquino PayPal.me/nicaaquino Cash.App @$nicaaquino666 Zelle nica.u.aquino@gmail.com |
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Michelle Anna Boire (she/they) is a Bay Area native, who currently lives in Redwood City. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and her MFA in Photography at San Jose State University. She currently teaches art and photography at an independent high school. Michelle's artwork focuses on the concepts and psychology of personal memory. She is interested in exploring the way in which one's perceptions and means of negotiating memory work to form and foster an individual's identity. Michelle is currently researching her family’s history and its connection to transgenerational trauma.
michelleannaboire.com IG @michelle___anna |
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For over a decade, Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin (he/him) has been photographing the urban environment. His work blends elements of landscape, documentary, and street photography to present a side of the city life that’s foreign to the unfamiliar. The experience of growing up in Los Angeles is the foundation for his photo essays, sharing a perspective that is often missing from the mainstream narrative.
kwasiboydbouldin.com IG @_kwasi_b Twitter @_kwasi_b |
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VALERIE J. BOWER (she/her) (b. 1986) is a Los Angeles based photographer. Her dream-like, monochrome street photography show a softer, feminine point of view on street cultures and everyday life, primarily in Los Angeles. Her work also includes a collection of self-published books, zines, and other printed items such as letter writing and postcard sets. In 2017, Valerie's photography book "Homegirls" was archived into the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
valeriejbower.bigcartel.com IG @valeriej.bower |
Brian Braganza (he/him) is a visual artist and musician originally from Los Angeles and is currently working out of New York City. Growing up in a Salvadoran and Filipino household and being drawn to LA's rich history of countercultural music scenes, Brian draws inspiration from the urban to the suburban, from the multicultural to the subcultural — and everything in between. In New York, he works across multiple mediums — music, zine making, photography, and writing — to contribute to New York's Fil-Am punk scene.
brianbraganza.com
brianbraganza.com
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my name is courtney bianca coles, and i’m a photographer and writer born and raised in los angeles. i received my bfa in photography from the pacific northwest college of art and my mfa with an emphasis in photography & media from calarts. my practice is rooted in my fascination with the multiple ways i consider people, places and memories “home” and my desire to preserve it. i am enthralled by making photographs that are soft and sincere because the world has been anything but to Black queer women like me. i extend grace first to myself, as seen in my self-portraits, and then to my loved ones who so graciously invite me into their lives. where the world has failed in protecting me, i have stepped in to make the quiet photographs that soothe me.
for a number of years i have made intimate photographs in the music industry and four years ago i co-founded to the front, a traveling art show and collective for women and non-binary artists working in the industry. |
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Animus J. (she/her) is a lens-based visual artist, making mostly portraits, still life and conceptual art. She started the journey from a film-making background, but rooted in photography. Recently she's keening on making physical art books, visual poetry and photo installations.
Based in Taipei, Taiwan. AnimusJ.com IG @animusj PayPal.me/AnimusJ |
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Semantha Raquel Norris (she/her) is a photographer and documentarian based in Los Angeles. She received her BA from New York University with a concentration in International Development and Photography. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, New York, and Havana.
doldrumphilosophy.com IG @doldrumphilosophy Venmo @semanthanorris |
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Born in Medellin, Sebastian Ospina has spent most of his adult life traveling and living abroad trying to develop an eye for the provocative and the unusual.
Based in Medellin, Columbia. IG @ospinart PayPal.me/jsospina89 |
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Christopher Anthony Velasco (he/him) is a photographer and performance artist who lives and works in Los Angeles. He emphasizes the queer brown body incorporating horror and camp aesthetics. Christopher received his Master of Fine Arts from UC Santa Barbara in 2019. He received his BFA from California Institute of the Arts. As a Getty Marrow Undergraduate Intern, Velasco interned at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles) and UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center and Library. Velasco is an instructor at CSSSA (California State Summer School of the Arts). Velasco’s work has been featured in exhibitions at Art Center College of Design, AD&A Museum, Avenue 50 Studio, California Institute of the Arts, Hibbleton Gallery, the Getty Museum, and the Vincent Price Art Museum. In addition, he has also performed with Harry Gamoba, Jr., with Virtual Verite, Los Angeles Union Station, UC Santa Barbara, and LAST Projects.
christopheravelasco.wixsite.com/cav-photography IG @caver83 |
Thank you for another year of Mata Art Gallery! Please consider donating to keep this project going. We're a completely not-for-profit creative space funded by the community. We never ask for submission fees or commissions, & artists receive 100% of their artwork sales. Your donations help pay the artists directly.
Please send donations to:
🌸 Venmo: @nicaaquino
🌸 PayPal: @nicaaquino (send as friends & family)
🌸 Cash.app: $nicaaquino666
🌸 Zelle: info@mataartgallery.org
Please send donations to:
🌸 Venmo: @nicaaquino
🌸 PayPal: @nicaaquino (send as friends & family)
🌸 Cash.app: $nicaaquino666
🌸 Zelle: info@mataartgallery.org
