Adrian Arias (American, born in Peru)
Is a visual artist, poet, performer, curator, activist, and cultural promoter, who brings together multidisciplinary artists to engage in community projects with messages of social justice, racial equality, climate change, peace, beauty, health, and hope in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Arias is one of the founders and creators of MAPP (Mission Arts Performance Project) and creator of festivals in the San Francisco Bay Area such as: VideoFest, Luna Negra, and ILLUSION shows in San Francisco.
Adrian uses his dreams as creative initiatives, which he makes come true in performances and community projects, such as his multimedia shows called DREAMS, or most currently Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution, where 23 visual artists and 43 poets from the SF Bay Area have participated.
The truth of the creative moment
For me, art is a tool for mental and bodily liberation, therefore, a force that can serve for changes in the field of social justice, in the emotional aspect and to provide an open space to feel freely, to imagine.
I believe in imagination as a power of transformation, and in the connections that are generated in reality and in dreams thanks to what we imagine.
I make art to feel free, to help others feel free, to inspire and be inspired.
Just like my ancestors from the Moche culture, from ancient Peru, I believe in art as an expression that mixes our reality with the images created in our dreams. The Mochicas were great observers, imaginative teachers, recreating their gods, using art to teach daily life, the body and rituals to transform and create new realities.
For me, as a multidisciplinary artist and art teacher, it is important to remember that creation goes beyond the result, that the fantastic will always be written in the creative act. The Moche culture almost disappeared in 700 AD, but those of us who carry its blood continue to passionately transmit our vision of art and reality, of a community that can be brought together to create, of solitudes united by an inexhaustible creative bond.
“Adrian Arias, the ever brilliantly inventive visual poet of the gesturing Word,” – Jack Hirschman, Emeritus Poet Laureate of San Francisco.
Adrian is the creator of ILLUSION SHOW, where around 50 artists meets to create art for 5 hours in a white paper container, inside a big space. Is like a dream.
My murals are usually commissions of activist groups or institutions and also self-employed, supporting local businesses that promote social justice and equality
Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead installation at SOMARTS, 2020, dedicated to George Floyd.