October 7th, 2023
Curated by Dina ZarifThe image of this indigenous woman is based on four native women from the territory that we now call America. It represents a woman of Mochica ancestry in Peru, (my culture,) mixed with a Nukak Woman native to the Colombian Amazon, an Ohlone woman, and a Yuma and Pápago woman from the border area between what we now call Arizona and Mexico.
Mural Opening Reception:
October 7th, 2023
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Adrian Arias is an international multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual arts, poetry, performance, and social justice. A descendant of the Mochica culture of ancient Peru, he embraces his culture’s use of dreams as a transformative catalyst between reality and imagination. This ancestral knowledge is used to connect artists and communities in collaborations that speak to equality, liberation, peace, and beauty. He believes that creation goes beyond the result: that the fantastic is always written in the creative act.
Arias has created large-scale murals for public and private businesses such as Google and a three-story mural at the corner of Turk and Hyde in San Francisco, commissioned by the Luggage Store. He has recently created murals for Magic Theater & Freight & Salvage. As co-founder of Mission Arts Performance Project MAPP, he conceptualizes and creates multi-sensory art experiences such as VideoFest, Luna Negra, and the ILLUSION show. His most ambitious project to date is Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution, a multifaceted collaboration conceived and orchestrated by Arias where he engaged sixty-two visual artists and poets in the creation of a community tarot deck that speaks to historic events that transpired over the pandemic. Published by Nomadic Press and released at CAST in San Francisco where Arias serves as the inaugural artist-in-residence.
ARTIST STATEMENT
English: The image of this indigenous woman is based on four native women from the territory that we now call America. It represents a woman of Mochica ancestry in Peru, (my culture,) mixed with a Nukak Woman native to the Colombian Amazon, an Ohlone woman, and a Yuma and Pápago woman from the border area between what we now call Arizona and Mexico.
Spanish: La imagen de esta mujer indígena está basada en cuatro mujeres nativas del territorio que hoy llamamos América. Mujeres de ascendencia Mochica en Perú, mi cultura, mezcladas con una Mujer Nukak originaria de la Amazonia colombiana, una mujer Ohlone y una Mujer Yuma y Pápago de la zona fronteriza entre lo que hoy llamamos Arizona y México.
Mural Assistant: Lindsey Crawford
Dina Zarif is an Iranian immigrant, performer, designer, and vocalist who combines Western classical singing with Middle Eastern styles inspired from her Persian roots. Some of her credits include SF International Arts Festival, Palace of Fine Art, San Jose Stage, Golden Thread Productions at Brava Theater, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, and the staged reading of Layla & Majnun at BAMPFA as part of the symposium with Mark Morris Dance Group and the Silk Road Ensemble. She tours both nationally and internationally as a costume designer and actress in the shadow light production Feathers of Fire. Dina is also a part-time architect and received her MA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Tehran, College of Fine Arts.
