All day I’ve been pondering turning 30 in January. I wanted to take some sort of proactive action to put my mind at ease and today I finally locked in a date for my 30th birthday party at SOMArts. There are so many streams of thought still flowing through my mind but I am excited and inspired to celebrate 30 years of my life on this planet.
One of my inspirations and reasons that I am looking forward to turning 30 is my favorite Chicana artist Zulma Aguiar (AKA Chicana Feliz). Homegirl has brought Chican@ thought and art to Hawaii and is making headway for those of us still struggling to find our voice in the mainland. Yesterday was her 34th birthday and she’s shown me that my 30’s can be a time of travel, adventure, positive change, and making challenging art all the while feeling good and looking good. My utmost gratitude to her for showing me how it’s done right. Happy Birthday Zulma.
These days I’ve been steady rocking Swedish music makers jj and their song My Life, My Swag. It’s helped me, in my head, lay out the adventure that lies before me. The title makes it sounds like some sort of grimy hip-hop joint but it’s really a dreamy pop song in the vein of The Tough Alliance. I hope you can dig it.
Born and raised on the mean streets of San Francisco's Mission District, Rio Yanez is a multimedia artist, photojournalist, and gallery curator. He has a degree in photography and media from the prestigious California Institute of the Arts (Calarts).
In addition to being an artist, Yanez also dons a Mexican Wrestling mask and assumes the identity of El Rio. As El Rio he fights in the name of equality for Latinos and against foes who want his casket closed. El Rio has appeared in video, photographic, and comic book projects as an avenger who "Never kills for the thrill but cuts for the cause."
The life of Rio Yanez has been largely shaped by his experiences as the only child of two semi-famous Latino artists and growing up and finding love in the Mission District. Other Wonder Years style moments in his life have included being robbed at gunpoint inside a McDonalds, getting drunk for the first time under the tutelage of artist Chynna Clugston-Major, the first time he kissed the love of his life, and winning a freestyle rap battle in a crowded Detroit nightclub (okay, maybe not that last one). His favorite artists are Jaime Hernandez, Nikki S. Lee, Shizu Saldamando, Pierre et Gilles, and Daino.
Having dodged more bullets than Neo in The Matrix, much of Yanez' work is a meditation on the urban Latino experience . His latest project is a series of photographs entitled Ghetto-Lomography. The images document the cause and effect of gentrification in the Mission District with a Lomo Fisheye camera.
Yanez has exhibited at Galeria de la Raza, the Mission Cultural Center, and the Richmond Health Center. His most recent curatorial project was Color Exchange a collaborative exhibit featuring contemporary artists from California and Tokyo's Tama Art College. He currently works at the South of Market Cultural Center and is on the photo staff of the bilingual newspaper El Tecolote.
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