noé olivas

noé olivas (b. 1987, San Diego, California—occupied Kumeyaay land) lives and works in South Central Los Angeles. He received his MFA from the University of Southern California in 2019, and his BFA from the University of San Diego in 2013. olivas' makes sculptures, prints, and performances that investigate the poetics of labor, specifically labor's relationship to leisure as well as its access to liberation. His work has been exhibited at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College, Claremont (2024); Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles (2023, 2019); Mandeville Gallery at the University of California, San Diego (2023); Candlewood Festival, Borrego Springs (2022); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2022); The Front Arte Y Cultura Gallery, San Ysidro (2021); Napa Hall Gallery at the California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo (2020); Open Mind Art Space, Los Angeles (2019); Residency Art Gallery, Inglewood (2019); La Jolla Historical Society, San Diego (2018 San Diego Art Institute, California (2017); The New Children’s Museum, San Diego (2017); and the San Diego Museum of Art. (2017). As part of the 2018 Mexicali Biennial, his work was also included in the traveling exhibition Calafia: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise at the Robert and Frances Fullerton Art Museum at the California State University, San Bernardino (2018), and Armory Center of the Arts, Pasadena, California (2019- 2020).

noé olivas's Hammer Projects show was on view at the Hammer Museum in 2022.

olivas has also performed in Open Mind Art Space, Los Angeles (2019); The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles (2020), Hauser & Wirth, Los Angeles (2018), and the NADA and Prizm Art Fair, Miami (2018) with collaborator Patrisse Cullors; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2018) with rafa esparza. olivas is co-founder of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, an art hub in South Central Los Angeles and Inglewood.

STATEMENT:

Growing up in a first-generation Mexican American, working-class family, I inherited a particular relationship to what it means to perform hard labor. The grueling toughness of labor—physically, mentally, and spiritually—is an integral part of my artmaking process. I seek to confront the invisibility of labor by facing it with people from the community through collaboration and discussion. I often use my family’s personal archive and other found objects and materials to construct sculptures, drawings, prints, and live performances. By investigating the poetics of labor, I reflect on labor's relationship to leisure as well as its access to liberation.

Artist Instagram: @calmatetupedo @crenshawdairymart