DesertArtLAB is an interdisciplinary environmental arts collaborative established in 2010. Their work promotes Indigenous/Chicanx perspectives on ecological practice, food sovereignty, self-determination, and climate change. DesertArtLAB’s projects activate public space through participatory artworks and support the restoration of desert environments and their foodways through zero irrigation regrowth projects.
Founder & Creative Director - Matt Garcia (he/him)
Garcia's artistic practice investigates systems of ecology, their relationship to knowledge and how native ecology can connect communities to a reclaiming or re-imagining of lost epistemology. Matthew Garcia is currently an Assistant Professor of Creativity + Practice at Colorado State University located in the Pueblo, Colorado. Garcia's work has been presented nationally and internationally at venues such as: Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (Paris France), Museum of Contemporary Native Art - MoCNA (Santa Fe,NM), Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara ,The International Symposium on Electronic Art (2012,2015), Balance-Unbalance Festival (Noose, Australia) and HASTAC (Lima, Peru) - Garcia is a 2016 Creative Capital awardee in Emerging Fields.
Director of Programs and Food Practice - April Bojorquez (she/her)
Bojorquez has worked in the museum field nationally/internationally as an educator, curator, and researcher. Bojorquez. Formerly she was the curator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center's Art Museum and is a fellow of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Museum Studies Program. Bojorquez works within the intersection of art and anthropology exploring new approaches to museum practices in an increasingly plural society. Influenced by participatory practices and social sculpture, Bojorquez employs diverse strategies to produce immersive and interactive environments exploring place, identity and museum practices. Bojorquez is a 2016 Creative Capital awardee in Emerging Fields.
Director of Programs and Food Practice - April Bojorquez (she/her)
Bojorquez has worked in the museum field nationally/internationally as an educator, curator, and researcher. Bojorquez. Formerly she was the curator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center's Art Museum and is a fellow of the Smithsonian Institution’s Latino Museum Studies Program. Bojorquez works within the intersection of art and anthropology exploring new approaches to museum practices in an increasingly plural society. Influenced by participatory practices and social sculpture, Bojorquez employs diverse strategies to produce immersive and interactive environments exploring place, identity and museum practices. Bojorquez is a 2016 Creative Capital awardee in Emerging Fields.
Contact: studio@desertartlab.com
