Join us in person or online on April 19th, 2024 at 6:00 PM for our Charla with Mariana Ramos Ortiz. This will take place in person at CALA Alliance at 316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103 and streamed on IG Live.

The charlas are a series of informal conversations between Contemporary U.S. Latinx and Latin American artists with Curatorial Assistant Sade Moore. The series gives viewers the opportunity to visit artists’ studios and hear more about their practice through conversations.

Ramos Ortiz was selected as the 2024 exchange resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

Join us for an open studio with exchange artist, Mariana Ramos Ortiz. The open studio will take place on Friday, March 8th from 6:00–8:00 PM at CALA Alliance (316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103). Ramos Ortiz will present work-in-progress created during her residency period through April 2024.

Ramos Ortiz was selected as the 2024 exchange resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

LatchKey Gallery, in partnership with CALA Alliance (Phoenix, AZ), is pleased to present Land of Wolves. This exhibition showcases new work by Alejandro Macias (b. 1987, Brownsville, TX), produced during CALA Alliance’s 2023 Regional Artist-in-Residence program. Land of Wolves is the artist’s New York City debut and the first show with LatchKey Gallery and will run from February 23 - March 31, 2024 at 173 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002. The opening reception will be Friday, February 23 from 6:00pm - 8:00pm.

Macias roots his practice in the ambiguity of the in-between–of identity, nationhood, and place. His paintings and drawings address themes of migration and assimilation, rendering a unique impression of the US/Mexico borderlands and foregrounding the brutal and unjust policies that characterize this space. The artist positions himself as a documentarian, depicting the objects, people, and geographies that make up the dynamic yet complex region.

Many of the works in Land of Wolves feature bifurcated maps, signposts, and portraits of law enforcement. These works serve as vignettes of the borderlands, often revealing the oppositions and inherent contradictions that exist within the region. The exhibition’s title, borrowed from the 2015 film Sicario, underscores Macias’s interest in interrogating representations of the borderlands in media and public consciousness. Though a contested, bicultural space, Macias draws attention to the narratives that disseminate across cultures to form a dominant idea of the borderlands in the American imagination.

In a series of works referencing the US flag, Macias creates a liminal space within the work itself by splitting the work across multiple panels and drawing attention to the space between them. For the artist, negative space or shifts in medium and iconography are critical aspects of the work. In paneled works such as LIFE, LIBERTY, HAPPINESS (2023), the craggy edges of splintered wood echo the almost 2,000 miles of the continental border. In contrast, smooth, industrial highway signs jut out of the bottommost section of the work, exposing the wall behind it. In a series of smaller wooden panels, Macias replicates the fissure between boards, with unique roadway signs bearing quotes from films released on both sides of the border.

In his portraits, Macias is profoundly interested in coupling seemingly oppositional elements in his sitters. In Border Watcher (2023), the subject wears a pressed and rigid border patrol uniform. While their identity is shielded by a multicolored serape–this pattern suggests that the sitter is of Mexican descent. The ongoing Nopal en la Frente series also depict border patrol officers, through precise graphite drawings paired with frenetic and gestural approaches in pastel. The derogatory title, a slur for Mexican Americans that shy away from their cultural heritage, signals that these officers, too, hold roots from the other side.

The duality of Macias’s compositions highlights the inherent friction that people of the borderlands hold within them. In many ways, the portraits, signs, and maps are physical manifestations of this rupture. Taken as a whole, Macias’s work asks us to consider the multiplicities of identities we may hold and how they might be in conflict with each other.

This reception is open to the public. Click “google Calendar” or “ICS” on this page to add this event to your calendar.

Join us at the exhibition opening of Sarah Zapata: Beneath the breath of the sun

“Beneath the breath of the sun” features newly created works completed during the artist’s residency with CALA Alliance in Fall 2023. Alongside these works, Zapata chose ceramics made with clay and earthen materials from the Museum’s collection to reference the land. The installation evokes a topography of the Arizona landscape, where bold hues of orange and yellow nod toward the punishing sun and air of the desert, weaving together the ecological and geological aspects that make up the complexity of our place.

Join us in person or online on December 15th, 2023 at 6:00 PM for our third Charla of the year with Sarah Zapata. This will take place in person at CALA Alliance at 316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103 and streamed on IG Live.

The charlas are a series of informal conversations between Contemporary U.S. Latinx and Latin American artists with Executive Director and Curator Alana Hernandez. The series gives viewers the opportunity to visit artists’ studios and hear more about their practice through conversations.

Zapata was selected as the 2023 national resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

Join us for a conversation with artist Luis Rivera Jimenez for the closing programming event for Luis Rivera Jimenez: A Brief Proposal on Race and Cultural Cosplay. We will explore how readings of images and symbols are registered through culture, race, and power and how these implicate our notions of violence and racism.

How I Became an Artista returns with its newest community-based Art LAB. Join us on Saturday at the Phoenix Hostel & Cultural Center (1026 N. 9th Street Phoenix, AZ, 85006) on December 2nd from 12:00 P.M. - 2:00 P.M. to participate in a holiday decoration workshop with artist Sarah Zapata. Participants in this workshop will discover basic textile methods but, most importantly, the creation process through play. We will focus on the history of textile methods and learn how to make yarn puffball ornaments and garlands.

This program is free with registration. Participants of all abilities are encouraged to participate. All materials will be provided.

Join us for an open studio with national resident artist, Sarah Zapata. The open studio will take place on Wednesday, November 1st from 6:00–8:00 PM at CALA Alliance (316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103). Zapata will present work-in-progress created during her residency period through December 2023.

Zapata was selected as the 2023 national resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

Join us for an evening of cuisine and fun as we celebrate Sabor: Celebrating the Flavors of Peru!

CALA Alliance is pleased to announce the much-anticipated return of its annual benefit dinner and culinary event, Sabor. On Thursday, October 19, 2023, at Heritage Park, CALA Alliance will present guests with one-night-only experience inspired by the regional ingredients and culinary traditions of Peru. At this year’s event, Cloth & Flame will design a dinner for guests comprised of leaders from the Latinx, artistic, business, political, nonprofit, and community sectors. Sabor proceeds directly benefit CALA Alliance and its mission to create shared arts experiences that encourage cultural understanding between people of the Americas.

A Phoenix-based multidisciplinary Latinx arts organization, CALA Alliance collaborates with artists and arts organizations to foster Latinx artistic talent in the Metro-Phoenix region and beyond. CALA Alliance creates vital spaces for audiences to engage in artistic learning and presents public programs that create intercultural dialogue, revealing the complexity and dynamism of our communities. In so doing, CALA Alliance’s program acts as a catalyst to grow community understanding of contemporary social issues from Latinx, Indigenous, and Latin American perspectives.

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How I Became an Artista returns with its newest community-based Art LAB. In Partnership with the ASU Art Museum, join us on Friday at the ASU Art Museum (51 E. 10th St., Tempe AZ) on September 15th from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM to participate in a papel picado workshop with artist Aileen Martinez. Participants in this workshop will learn how to make their own papel picado banner, a paper cutting craft and decoration that originates from Mexico.

This program is free with registration. Participants of all abilities are encouraged to participate. All materials will be provided.

We will discuss key points in our survey and share our conclusions about the current state of Race and Cultural Cosplay. Our R&D specialist, Luis Rivera Jimenez, will present leading inquiries into these topics. Backed by the leading professionals and researchers into these themes, this report will illuminate the tumultuous and complicated realities of dealing with Race and Cultural Cosplay to compel and inspire each other towards the action needed to make a difference in you/and your community. 

Key takeaways: Race, Cultural Cosplay, Inspiration

Join artists Carlos Martiel and Luis Rivera Jimenez, and director and professor of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University, Irasema Coronado, in a conversation about artistic and aesthetic responses to migration, immigration, and displacement, moderated by Alana Hernandez,  executive director & curator at CALA Alliance and curator of Latinx art at the ASU Art Museum.

A panel of leading experts on translation*, language and racial justice will kickoff our events related to the exhibition, Luis Rivera Jimenez: A Brief Proposal on Race and Cultural Cosplay. As members of this multicultural and ethnically diverse board it is crucial for success in our mission and our future milestones to foster a culture of inclusivity through language. We look to empower our board members with this compelling journey into the values, thoughts and vision that we hope to inspire throughout this meeting/agenda/report. As we start off our agenda, we hope we can compel and inspire each other towards the action needed to make a difference in you/and your community.

Key takeaways: Race, Language, Translating, Empowerment

*Disclaimer: This event does not contain translations by accepted certified, sworn, notarised and legalized translators. We disclaim all warranties related to the translations, expressed or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, reliability, and any implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement.”

For these translations, reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no amount of translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace human translators. These inquiries into translations are provided as a service to users of this exhibition , and are provided “as is.” No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, or correctness of any of these translations made from English into any other language.

In celebration of the opening of three new exhibitions, “Everything is a Little Fuzzy”, “Luis Jimenez Rivera: A Brief Proposal on Race and Cultural Cosplay” and “Crafting Resistance”, you are cordially invited to a reception with the artists and ASU Art Museum curators Alana Hernandez, Erin Joyce, Windgate curatorial fellow Ninabah Winton and curatorial intern Abby Sutton. Join us for drinks and light refreshments, music and art activities at the ASU Art Museum.

Admission is free with registration.

Join us in person on August 11th, 2023 at 5:30 PM for our second Charla of the year with Alex Macias. This will take place in person at CALA Alliance at 316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103 and streamed on IG Live.

The charlas are a series of informal conversations between Contemporary U.S. Latinx and Latin American artists with Executive Director and Curator Alana Hernandez. The series gives viewers the opportunity to visit artists’ studios and hear more about their practice through conversations.

Macias was selected as the 2023 exchange resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

Join us for an open studio with regional resident artist, Alex Macias. The open studio will take place on Friday, July 14th from 6:30–8:30 PM at CALA Alliance (316 W McDowell Rd., Suite 103). Macias will present work-in-progress created during his residency period through August 2023.

Macias was selected as the 2023 regional resident artist for CALA's Residencias Artísticas residency program. CALA’s residency program is one of the only programs that exclusively foster Latinx artistic talent in the United States, providing artists with unparalleled resources that enable them to realize innovative, ambitious new work.

How I Became an Artista returns with its newest community-based Art LAB. In partnership with the Sagrado Galleria, join us on Saturday, June 24th from 12:00–2:00 PM to participate in a mixed media workshop with CALA Alliance's 2023 regional resident, Alejandro Macias.

Participants in this workshop will learn about Macias’s project and research as a regional artist in resident at CALA Alliance. Community members will learn about mixed media approaches within a singular surface while having the freedom to explore their own subject matter.

Participants of all abilities are encouraged to participate. All materials will be provided.

This program is free with registration. Register below!

About the Artist

Born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, along the US / Mexico border, Alejandro Macias received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Brownsville in 2008, and a Master of Fine Arts in 2D Studio Art from the University of Texas - Pan American in 2012. His practice mixes conventional, representational, and abstract approaches, a strategy that acts as a metaphor for his upbringing along the US / Mexico border. His work explores themes of Mexican American identity, assimilation, acculturation, repression, civil rights, immigration, cultural misconceptions, contemporary socio-political trepidations, and the ever-shifting US political landscape. Through his canvases and works on paper, Macias look to unearth ignored histories pertaining to migrant communities across the southwest.

About The Sagrado Galeria

The Sagrado was established in Phoenix, Arizona in 2016 as a response to the city’s lack of commitment to the South Phoenix community, arts, and culture. The Sagrado Galleria stands as the only community arts organization and art gallery in South Phoenix that nurtures the community’s cultural identity and serves as a cultural bridge for the Valley.

How I Became an Artista workshops are offered to our community free of charge. You can help support CALA Alliance in keeping these programs free to community. Please consider partnering with CALA Alliance with a modest gift to help purchase art making materials and provide equitable stipends to our teaching artists.

A suggested donation of $5.00 per participant is greatly appreciated.

How I Became an Artista returns with its newest community-based Art LAB. In partnership with ASU Art Museum, join us on Saturday, May 13th from 2:00 P.M - 4:00 P.M to participate in a project on grief and art with local artist Diana Calderón.

Participants will explore the exercise of processing grief through art practice. Participants will learn how to create a small accordion book which can be filled with photos and objects related to loss and one's personal relationship with the topic of loss (losing a loved one, losing a pet, losing an object, loss of memories, etc.) Participants will be able to decorate the cover of their book through a printmaking method of their choosing guided by Diana Calderón. Participants are encouraged to bring small personal objects put into their book.

This program is free with registration. Participants of all ages and abilities are encouraged to participate. All materials will be provided with exception to the personal objects brought by participants.

How I Became an Artista returns with its newest community-based Art LAB. In partnership with CHISPA AZ, join us at El Oso Park on Saturday, April 22nd from 11:30 AM–1:30 PM for an Earth Day Celebration and create your own seed bomb. Participants will learn about plants native to the Phoenix region, how to care for them, and be able to make an individual art piece that will evolve over time. Participants will also learn about the history of Seed bombs and their cultural influence, dating as far back as Ancient Japan. The seed bombs can be dropped in the park to grow there or can be taken home with care instructions.  

Participants of all ages/abilities are invited. All materials provided! 

Continuing CALA’s commitment to engaging audiences through dynamic virtual programming, CALA Presenta > Charlas is a series of conversations between Contemporary U.S. Latinx and Latin American artists with Executive Director and Curator Alana Hernandez. The conversation series gives viewers the opportunity to visit artists’ studios and hear more about their practice through informal conversations. Emphasizing CALA’s commitment to U.S. Latinx and artists in Latin America, these artist conversations explore the dynamism that exists within the Latinx and Latin American art communities. Featuring artists that span geographic locations in and outside of the United States, CALA Presenta > Charlas are presented with each new artist resident in person and streamed via Instagram Live.  

Luis Rivera Jiménez (1997), Dominican and Puerto Rican. He is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher who works with physical and digital materials to create spaces and experiences for possible reconfigurations of western epistemologies and racial structures. His artistic practice takes “digital global society” as a starting point and borrows language and forms from contemporary art, anarchist political thought, psychoanalysis, and the Caribbean quotidian. This all to post questions within the dynamics of representation, hierarchies, collaboration, context, and "poor" materialities and how to attune them to contemporary material, digital and racial conditions. 

A pattern, a trace, a portrait: Four Artists from CALA Alliance’s Residency Program showcases new and existing work by Carolina Aranibar-Fernández, Diana Calderón, Estrella Esquilín and Sam Frésquez. These regional Latinx artists each present discrete installations that weave together universal themes of memory, loss and grief while highlighting issues related to place and the destruction of our natural environment. A pattern, a trace, a portrait highlights the dichotomy between the most intimate histories and the most global concerns. 

This exhibition showcases, in part, a partnership between CALA Alliance and ASU Art Museum. CALA Alliance (Celebración Artística de las Américas) is a Latinx arts organization based in Phoenix. CALA Alliance collaborates with artists and arts organizations to nurture artistic talent, focusing on artists from the Latin American diaspora. The organization advances its mission through innovative artist residencies, artist commissions, community workshops, and public programming that position the Metro Phoenix region as a fruitful site that acknowledges and contributes to the promotion of Latinx art throughout the United States.

CALA Alliance and ASU Art Museum work in partnership to achieve their common mission of incubating and accelerating the presence of Latinx art in the United States. Together CALA Alliance and ASUAM promote the exchange of new ideas, perspectives, and experiences among artists, students, and the public through various programs, especially those that educate and inspire the public about the richness of the Latinx cultural heritage.

A pattern, a trace, a portrait: Four artists from CALA Alliance’s Residency Program is organized by Alana Hernandez, Executive Director & Curator of CALA Alliance and made possible by gifts to CALA Alliance’s general operating fund and a grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. This exhibition is also generously supported by members of ASU Art Museum’s Board and Councils.

CALA Alliance (Celebración Artística de las Américas) will host Crossfade LAB on Wednesday, November 16, 2022. The series returns to Crescent Ballroom for its eleventh installment, featuring celebrated performance artist Carlos Martiel and acclaimed musician Xenia Rubinos. Crossfade LAB is the only event of its kind in the nation. It is a thought-provoking blend of conversations, art experiences, live musical performances, and unexpected collaborations with internationally renowned Indigenous, Latinx, and Latin American artists. 

Crossfade LAB returns to its home venue Crescent Ballroom. It will be offered in a hybrid manner, offering a live-stream option with bilingual live captioning, allowing the program to traverse physical, linguistic, and auditory barriers for a more accessible experience. This iteration of Crossfade LAB features a special meeting between Cuban-born, Mexico City and New York-based performance artist Carlos Martiel and New York-based Xenia Rubinos. Moderated by MacArthur Fellow and Crossfade LAB co-curator Josh Kun, the evening will blend emotionally charged performances that underscore the lived realities of Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color with soulful Caribbean-inspired jazz melodies. The fusion of sound and political image will transport audiences across the dynamic geographies of the Americas, from Cuba to Puerto Rico, New York to Phoenix, underscoring the often-political realities that exist while traversing space and place as people of color.

Since 2016, CALA Alliance has presented ten Crossfade LAB events to sold-out audiences. Each event features a cross-disciplinary conversation, performance, and onstage collaboration between two artists working in the performing, visual, media, and literary arts. CALA Alliance invites artists who are considered great crossfaders: artists looking for points of connection and intersection between different art forms, cultures, communities, and ways of being in the world and who can create meaningful public conversations and animate ideas in new and exciting ways. 

Since its inception, Crossfade LAB has featured the work of some of the most important Latinx and Latin American artists of our time, including visual artists Guadalupe Maravilla (New York), Teresita Fernández (New York), Tania Candiani (Mexico City), rafa esparza (Los Angeles), and Carolina Caycedo (Colombia/Los Angeles); literary artists Natalie Diaz (Arizona Mojave, 2018 MacArthur Fellow, and 2021 Pulitzer Prize winner), Daniel Alarcón (New York, 2021 MacArthur Fellow), and Rita Indiana (Dominican Republic); performance artists Nao Bustamante (Los Angeles) and Radio Healer (Arizona); and musicians Alex Antwander (New York/Chile), San Cha (Los Angeles), Julieta Venegas (Mexico City, Grammy Award winner), Carla Morrison (Tecate/Mexico City, Grammy Award winner), Helado Negro (Ecuador/New York), Lido Pimienta (Colombia/Toronto), Javiera Mena (Chile), and Calexico (Arizona).

Crossfade LAB is organized by CALA Alliance in collaboration with ASU Art Museum and Crescent Ballroom. Crossfade LAB is made possible with institutional support provided by the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. This program is supported in part by an award from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Arizona Community Foundation.

Join us for an evening of fun as we celebrate Sabor: Celebrating the Flavors of Puerto Rico!

CALA Alliance is pleased to announce the much-anticipated return of its annual benefit dinner and culinary event, Sabor. On October 20, 2022, at the Phoenix Zoo Neely Center, world-renowned Puerto Rican Chef Mario Pagán will create a one-night-only menu inspired by regional ingredients and culinary traditions of Puerto Rico. At this year’s event, Chef Pagán will design a five-course dinner for guests comprised of leaders from the Latinx, artistic, business, political, nonprofit, and community sectors.

At this iteration of Sabor, CALA Alliance is pleased to recognize its first Sabor Honorees. The organization will honor the five founding members of CALA Alliance. Each have demonstrated their commitment to the organization and our shared community.

Sabor proceeds directly benefit CALA Alliance and its mission to create shared arts experiences that encourage cultural understanding between people of the Americas. A Phoenix-based multidisciplinary Latinx arts organization, CALA Alliance collaborates with artists and arts organizations to foster Latinx artistic talent in the Metro-Phoenix region and beyond. CALA Alliance creates vital spaces for audiences to engage in artistic learning and presents public programs that create intercultural dialogue, revealing the complexity and dynamism of our communities. In so doing, CALA Alliance’s program acts as a catalyst to grow community understanding of contemporary social issues from Latinx, Indigenous, and Latin American perspectives.

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Salt River Project

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AAA

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Arizona Community Foundation

Molera Alvarez

Cox Communications

Arizona State University Office of Community Affairs

Visit Phoenix

Southwest Gas

CVS Health Foundation

Alliance Bank

Gammage & Burnham

Center for Creation in the Borderlands

Chicanos por la Causa

Supporting Sponsors

The Main Street Group

Aniles & Co.

Hispanics in Philanthropy

Iconico

Cárdenas Family

Raza Development Fund

Discount Tire

OH Strategic Communications

K&K Public Safety Consultants

CALA Alliance is pleased to present the exhibition Sam Frésquez: Second Place is the First Loser. This solo exhibition showcases new work produced by CALA Alliance’s 2022 Regional Artist in Residence, Sam Frésquez. The exhibition opens October 7, 2022, and will be on view at CALA Alliance through November 4, 2022. 

At its core, Frésquez’s practice is linked to the dichotomy of public versus private. Their work interrogates the social arrangements that structure gender, sexuality, and the intimacies of private life. Frésquez asks us to consider the ways that we present ourselves to the outside world and how this public presentation might differ from our private experiences.

In Second Place is the First Loser Frésquez responds to issues of vulnerability and resilience through the lens of gender, themes that have recurred in the artist’s work. The exhibition examines the rigid and hyper-masculine culture surrounding NASCAR through performance and sculptural installation. Frésquez first began working with this subject in a previous series in which she introduced the fictional character, “the first Latina NASCAR driver.” In past performances the character is seen in iconic postures of celebration, such as spraying champagne or waving a flag.

This exhibition is focalized around four new beaded artworks: two driving fire suits and two racing flags. These fire suits—sturdy, thick, and rigid—are employed by drivers for protection. The racing suits seen here, hung on the wall until the next race, are scaled to fit the artist yet represent the fictional “first Latina NASCAR driver.” Frésquez has adorned each suit with colored glass beads. These have been methodically placed to create familiar patterns such as flames or surprising slogans like “YASCAR”—drawn from a corporate branding campaign by NASCAR to celebrate Pride Month.

The exhibition’s title is taken from a quote popularized by racecar driver Dale Earnhardt. Embracing a sense of contradiction, Frésquez takes on this divide between winners and losers to explore ideas of durability and vulnerability. The beaded artworks are at once strong and fragile, functional and decorative. Taken as a whole, Second Place is the First Loser complicates the rigidity of such binaries and asks the viewer to imagine new societal arrangements that might structure our lives.

Sam Frésquez: Second Place is the First Loser is organized by CALA Alliance Executive Director & Curator Alana Hernandez and is made possible with institutional support provided by the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture. This exhibition, a part of CALA Alliance’s Residencias Artísticas, is supported in part by an award from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.