Mission Statement:
“MATA”, meaning “eye” in several Austronesian languages, was a concept conceived in 2016 that finally came to life during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as a platform to promote works by BIPOC, queer, disabled and/or working class emerging artists from all around the world. Inspired by its existence across several islander languages, MATA transcends borders and binaries, with aims to foster genuine inclusiveness, diversity, and lend visibility to emerging artists existing within the margins.
Founded and directed by artist and curator, Nica Aquino, MATA currently exists as an online art gallery, with dreams to one day manifest into a physical art and community space. Exhibitions are ongoing until new concepts are developed and will be accompanied by a printable zine PDF that will be available for a $1 donation (or any amount of your choice). There will be no regular exhibition schedule and instead will function on Nica’s capacity. Please be patient during transitional periods.
MATA ART GALLERY does not exist as a for-profit platform. 100% of artwork purchases go directly to the artists themselves and submission fees will never be required to submit artwork or proposals. If you have an idea for programming, let's work together & help make your vision happen!
“MATA”, meaning “eye” in several Austronesian languages, was a concept conceived in 2016 that finally came to life during the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020, as a platform to promote works by BIPOC, queer, disabled and/or working class emerging artists from all around the world. Inspired by its existence across several islander languages, MATA transcends borders and binaries, with aims to foster genuine inclusiveness, diversity, and lend visibility to emerging artists existing within the margins.
Founded and directed by artist and curator, Nica Aquino, MATA currently exists as an online art gallery, with dreams to one day manifest into a physical art and community space. Exhibitions are ongoing until new concepts are developed and will be accompanied by a printable zine PDF that will be available for a $1 donation (or any amount of your choice). There will be no regular exhibition schedule and instead will function on Nica’s capacity. Please be patient during transitional periods.
MATA ART GALLERY does not exist as a for-profit platform. 100% of artwork purchases go directly to the artists themselves and submission fees will never be required to submit artwork or proposals. If you have an idea for programming, let's work together & help make your vision happen!
Nica Aquino, Gallery Director and Curator:
Nica Aquino is a first-generation Ilokana-Amerikana (Filipina) artist and curator currently based in Los Angeles, CA. After pursuing a "higher" education and working professionally in the arts, Nica noticed the lack of accessibility and visibility for BIPOC, queer, disabled and/or working class artists. Witnessing the gate keeping, bureaucracy, classism, racism, ableism, nepotism, abuse, burnout and inaccessibility in the arts, she wanted to create a space accessible to all, void of traditional hierarchies and exclusivity, built for collaboration and expression. At the moment, the gallery exists in a digital world, but Nica has dreams to develop the gallery into a physical space one day, without losing the accessibility of its virtual existence. Thank you for your support and patience as she gets this new project off the ground!
To learn more about Nica and her work, you can visit her website at nicaaquino.com.
Nica Aquino is a first-generation Ilokana-Amerikana (Filipina) artist and curator currently based in Los Angeles, CA. After pursuing a "higher" education and working professionally in the arts, Nica noticed the lack of accessibility and visibility for BIPOC, queer, disabled and/or working class artists. Witnessing the gate keeping, bureaucracy, classism, racism, ableism, nepotism, abuse, burnout and inaccessibility in the arts, she wanted to create a space accessible to all, void of traditional hierarchies and exclusivity, built for collaboration and expression. At the moment, the gallery exists in a digital world, but Nica has dreams to develop the gallery into a physical space one day, without losing the accessibility of its virtual existence. Thank you for your support and patience as she gets this new project off the ground!
To learn more about Nica and her work, you can visit her website at nicaaquino.com.
Special shout out to Ace Ubas for keeping our resources updated & to Steven Rahbany for designing our logos!
Interested in volunteering with MATA ART GALLERY? Shoot over an email and let's see how we can work together! Send an email at info@mataartgallery.org
