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Joel Garcia (Huichol) is an artist, arts administrator and cultural organizer with 20+ years of experience working transnationally focusing on community-centered strategies. His approach is rooted in Indigenous-based forms of dialoguing and decision-making (non-hierarchical) that uplifts non-institutional expertise. Joel uses art and organizing to raise awareness of issues facing underserved communities, inner-city youth, and other targeted populations. As an artist, he uses printmaking to explore masculinity through Indigenous perspectives through his project “Tatewari,” as well as other social justice issues with his work garnering national press in publications such as the LA Times, NY Times, and Artforum among others.

He’s co-founder and director of Meztli Projects, an Indigenous-based arts & culture collaborative centering indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles by using arts-based strategies to advocate for and organize to highlight issues impacting native artists and youth. Meztli Projects (2020) was recently awarded a multi-year grant by the “Ready to Rise Initiative” a Youth Development project of the California Community Foundation/Liberty Hill Foundation funded by the LA County Probation Department to support new strategies using art and Indigenous-based practices to support youth and reduce violence. Meztli Projects was also awarded the California Arts Council’s (CAC) Innovations + Intersections (I+I) (2020) program, rooted in the understanding that the arts can provide innovative strategies to respond to society’s most pressing opportunities and concerns. The CAC has created this pilot grant category to support innovative projects that use arts and culture-based approaches to respond to systemic issues that affect Californians.

He’s a current fellow of the Stanton Fellowship by the Durfee Foundation. Joel’s a former fellow and facilitator of the Intercultural Leadership Institute ('19-23) a collaborative program of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) and PA’I Foundation working to develop leaders specifically within the arts & culture field to adeptly respond to significant changes that impact society, politics, environment, and economy, Monument Lab ('19-'20 & ‘22) an independent public art and history studio based in Philadelphia that cultivates and facilitates critical conversations around the past, present, and future of monuments, and was awarded the AIR, the Artist-in-Residence Program at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) in 2020, which empowers innovation by uniting the creative and cleantech communities in the shared aim of addressing global environmental problems. In 2021, he also participated as an Artist-in-Residence for Encoding Futures: Speculative Monuments for L.A. launched by OXY ARTS, a remote summer residency program. Over a 3-month period, Joel along with artists Nancy Baker-Cahill, Audrey Chan, and Patrick Martinez researched and developed original virtual monuments to be geo-located at sites across Los Angeles. The monuments are accessible for the public to view through the 4th Wall app.

Joel served as Co-Director at Self Help Graphics & Art (2010 - 2018) an organization rooted in printmaking and social justice. Under Joel’s leadership and through his experience, relationships in art-driven initiatives, community organizing and activism, SHG’s programs grew and garnered national recognition, and was recognized by President Obama’s administration. Projects he launched such as the Know Your Rights Poster Making Pop-Ups and JornARTleros led to supporting advocacy for vulnerable communities, Eastside artists, and low-wage workers such as street vendors, among other accomplishments. Joel designed and led the relaunch of the Barrio Mobile Art Studio, a mobile arts program under a social enterprise model employing and training artists. His advocacy and work with youth for a holistic approach to youth development have led to systemic changes in support of Boyle Heights residents.

Furthermore, he has centered his work around Indigenous perspectives, as-well-as non-hierarchical, reciprocal, and anti-colonial practices, which has made it possible for SHG to be a host site for Indigenous-based events and mobilizations. As printmaker, Joel has assisted with revitalizing the Professional Print Program by helping merge digital and analog techniques and pushing for more experimental processes. He developed various print projects, including key programs such as the Printmaking Summit (and related print portfolio) and most recently, the 45th Anniversary Exhibition and artist panel series, “Entre Tinta y Lucha: 45 Years of Self Help Graphics & Art,” at Cal State LA to strengthen Chicana/o and Latinx printmaking.

Joel has worked with various movements and organizations locally and internationally such as the Dolores Huerta Foundation, UFW United Farm Workers, Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural, The Getty, Japanese American National Museum, the Save Ethnics Studies Campaign in Arizona, Alto Arizona Campaign against SB1070, National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Cucapa Campaign for Ancestral Fishing Rights among others. Additionally, between '99 and '09 he nurtured and managed Chicano and Latinx musical artists and developed festivals and tours in the US, Latin American, and Europe and has worked with musicians and performers such as Grammy Award Winning The Black Keys, Grammy Award Winning Quetzal, Emmy Award Winning Eddie Izzard, among others. He has also booked music tours in North America, Costa Rica, Peru & Europe helping expand Chicano & Mexican Punk Music.

Press (select list)

Interviews & Panels

Much thanks to @mozaikphilanthropy for supporting the effort to create new pathways for young artists from communities like mine, to support my efforts to bridge opportunities for Native/Indigenous artists/creatives and to build a new way of sustaini
Do yourself a favor, sit folks in your household down and watch @cityofghostsnetflix (episode 4) - a beautiful offering to #indigenous Los Angeles #yaangna #toovangar featuring @toovitum L Frank, @mercedes.dorame @meganmichelledorame and Craig Torres
On Friday I’ll be speaking about that intersection between spirituality, monuments and the many ways that false narratives like statues can result in violent policing of Indigenous, Black and other communities of color - and how we can reclaim
This Saturday I’ll be in conversation with @debrascaccostudio as part of the @art_in_residence program in #tataviam #serrano lands to talk about decentralized forms of creative practice. DM for the registration link or head over to @art_in_re
This is Duke, day 6 after surgery. He still has his ear 👂, no worries folks. He caught a small ear infection a couple weeks back but because the vet is packed (I called like 10 different places) they wouldn’t see him right away because it wasn
Today we start @meztliprojects youth #printmaking workshops so getting a sample ready with a #etching portrait of Duke. We’ll be using readily available supplies found anywhere in the hood and “professional” printmaking tools and co
Damn!!!!!! 11 years to the day this vato rolled up to the pad, like adopt me 🐶 and over the pandemic 😷 he’s become a French fry 🍟 aficionado 🤦🏾‍♂️
#asco #defundthesheriff #berniesanders #chicanoart
http://www.stopcve.com/uploads/1/1/2/4/112447985/white_supremacy_toolkit.pdf Can We Legislate White Supremacy Away? Elected officials wanting to show opposition to visible white supremacist violence are passing sweeping legislation that is a danger
What you are watching is not a Coup attempt, it is a man-baby tantrum. Do not excuse the insidious politicians that will distance themselves from all this white privilege on display. They will continue to find ways to push their white supremacist v
Monument Lab is proud to announce our inaugural cohort of fellows. Chosen through a national open call, these civic practitioners and youth fellows confront the inequity and injustice in our nation’s monuments and provide bold, creative approaches t…

Monument Lab is proud to announce our inaugural cohort of fellows. Chosen through a national open call, these civic practitioners and youth fellows confront the inequity and injustice in our nation’s monuments and provide bold, creative approaches to public art, history, and memory. Some of the fellows have been working toward these ends for decades. Others began only recently, but have already made impressive, vital contributions. Together, they represent a new guard who are radically redefining what it means to engage public spaces, sites of history, and monuments today.

Joel Garcia (Los Angeles, CA) is an artist, arts administrator and cultural organizer with 20+ years of experience working transnationally across the Americas. Joel is one of the recipients of the NFA Artist Grant which will support the continuation…

Joel Garcia (Los Angeles, CA) is an artist, arts administrator and cultural organizer with 20+ years of experience working transnationally across the Americas. Joel is one of the recipients of the NFA Artist Grant which will support the continuation of "Tatewari (Transformed Through Fire)", a serigraph portrait-based series uplifting members of Los Angeles' Xicano/Indigenous community who have survived street-violence and addictions to become agents of healing.

Learn More: www.nalac.org/communications/newsroom/2602-43-grants-latino-artists-organizations

PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS: CSULA Library

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Over the course of a few months in the summer of 2018, I had the opportunity to work with 14 students from @calstatela through @kdrslaysthepatriarchy class in partnership with @justicelanow #projectrebound and #wordsuncaged to create an art installation calling for prison abolition and to support the fight stop the construction of new prisons by the @countyofla - We took one #jailbed bunk and created two student desks to illustrate the need to redirect resources from incarceration towards education. We also have to remember that those first incarcerated in LA were the #tongvaprimarily women. One of the first structures built when LA was founded was a jail. This installation will be up at the CSULA Library until Dec. 21, 2018. #toypurina #apachiagna#yangna #schoolsnotprisons #jailbedsdrop @_projectrebound @wordsuncaged

South of the Border
South of the Border is a fine art exhibition addressing the timely and controversial topic of immigration through the works of ten artists whose ancestral heritage connects them to several Latin American countries.

October 21 - December 4, 2017
453 S. La Brea Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90036
participating gallery Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA

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Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles. Led by the Getty, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA is the latest collaborative effort from arts institutions across Southern California.

tatewari
June 13, 2015 | 4PM to 6PM

Vincent Price Art Museum

1031 Avenida Cesar E. Chavez, Monterey Park, CA 91754-6099

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