Artist Profile

Luis Garcia

Oakland, Ca

I love the pursuit of creating, the many forms it takes, but most of all the joy, and satisfaction it can bring, on so many sensory and spiritual levels. I believe in the continuous mortal coil and a primordial connection to the creative process. The visual language that I employ revolves around cultural, societal, natural, and mystical elements. The iconography, motifs, and symbols that I use represent the duality of both the Central and North American cultures that have influenced and shaped my worldview. Representation is important, I choose to paint people of color, their stories, fear, dreams, hopes. Growing up I hardly saw any works that reflected my stories that reflected me, me my culture. I use art to balance, to fill in, to show the full picture.

Luis Garcia is a Salvadorian-born Bay Area artist whose work examines cultural roots, identity, social/political issues, and place. I began taking art classes at City College. One of the classes I happen to take was a Meso-American Art History class. This class introduced me to the many magnificent indigenous cultures that had existed during the Pre-Colombian period, especially those in the Central American region.
I have since expanded. my studies and deepened my exploration about identity and cultural connections. In 2002 I graduated from C.C.A. with honors, and garnered an Individualized B.F.A. degree in Painting and Sculpture. I reside in Oakland now, and continue developing, working, and exhibiting work throughout the Bay Area. I have been fortunate to have been able to have my work shown: the de Young Museum (Day of the Dead Exhibition), Chico Museum of Contemporary Art, MarinMOCA, Mission Cultural Center, 111 Minna, SOMARTS, Berkeley Art Center, and Galeria de la Raza. In 2016 I was honored to be the first Artist-in-Residence at Marin MOCA.