Caleb Duarte Piñon (ka-leb) is an American multidisciplinary artist who works with construction type materials, site-specific community performance, painting, and
social sculpture and
social practices
Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often a ...
.
Early life and education
Caleb Duarte was born in the border town of El Paso, Texas where his family lived in Juarez, Mexico. At the age of four, Duarte and his family migrated from Nogales, Sonora to the farming community of Corcoran of California. He is one of four boys born to Francisco Duarte and Soledad Duarte Piñon. Siblings are Samuel Hiram Duarte, Josue Duarte, and David Duarte.
After graduating high school in 1996, Duarte worked odd jobs as a window cleaner, roofing, pools and in construction, laying drywall in new homes in the suburbs of Fresno CA, while taking painting courses at
Fresno City College; His early years in construction would later inform his work as he discovered the fragility of the materials used to create suburban homes. In 2000, duarte was accepted to the undergraduate program in painting at the
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...
.
In the first year of study Duarte lived in his van in the Russian hill adjoining the campus of the SFAI while commuting bi-weekly to Fresno California. Duarte navigated through the housing crisis in San Francisco during the
dot-com boom and lived various housing situations in the Mission District of SF, Berkeley, Alameda and Oakland.
Career
Duarte co-foundered and directed the international experimental artist residency and cultural hub of diverse practices, EDELO (Spanish acronym for 'Where the United Nations Used To Be') along with artist and activist Mia Eve Rollow in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas Mexico in 2009. The space invited participants of diverse disciplines to live and create in collaboration with autonomous indigenous communities. The diversity of residents included PhDs to jugglers; contemporary artists, activists, educators, rural farmers and community members of rural Chiapas. Notable residents include
Emory Douglas; former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, muralist
Rigo 23,
Favianna Rodriguez,
Rupa Marya
Rupa and the April Fishes is a global alternative group based in San Francisco, California, fronted by composer, singer and guitarist Rupa Marya. The group's songs are a mixture of musical styles ranging from jazz to punk to reggae to chanson, wi ...
, and scholars such as
Ramesh Srinivasan
Ramesh Srinivasan (born 1976) is a professor of Information Studies.
Professional life
Ramesh Srinivasan is an associate professor of Information Studies in the GSEIS, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies Graduate Program at the ...
. Other notable participants in exhibiting artist and performances include
Regina Galindo,
Manuel Ocampo
Manuel Ocampo (born 1965) is a Filipino artist. His work fuses sacred Baroque religious iconography with secular political narrative. His works draw upon a wide range of art historical references, contain cartoonish elements, and draw inspiratio ...
with Juan Carlos Quintana, Lisl Ponger. Performing artist include hip hop artist Olmeca, Manik B, and Climbing Poetree, Roco from
Maldita Vecindad, Lengualerta.
Duarte has spoken on this work at the 2012
Creative Time Summit in New York City, the
Otis School of Art and Design - San Francisco State University, The
De Young Museum San Francisco, East Side Arts Alliance in Oakland, and the
REDCAT Gallery in Los Angeles California,
University Of New Mexico,
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts,
UC Santa Cruz,
Fresno State Univerity, amongst many others.
As the lead facilitator for ZAPANTERA NEGRA project, Duarte collaborated with
Rigo 23 and Mia Eve Rollow; bringing in artist and once Minister of Culture for the
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
, Emory Douglas to work with the
Zapatista. This project united Zapatistas with Black Panther esthetics to investigate the use of the body and visual communication in both distinct political and artistic movements.
Duarte teaches sculpture at
Fresno City College.
In 2023, Duarte was appointed by Governor
Gavin Newsom to serve a four year term as a member of the
California Arts Council. Duarte was part of the Oakland Arts Commission appointed by then Mayor
Jerry Brown in 2006.
Exhibitions
Caleb Duarte has presented his work at numerous institutions, including
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF, Red Dot Art Fair in NY, The Sullivan Galleries in Chicago, Jack Fisher Gallery in SF, Gallery 727 Los Angeles, The
Oakland Museum of California, the
Fresno Art Museum
The Fresno Art Museum is an art museum in Fresno, California. The museum's collection includes contemporary art, modern art, Mexican and Mexican-American art, and Pre-Columbian sculpture.
Mission Statement
"The Fresno Art Museum offers a dynami ...
and The
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Bay Area Now 8, and many others. In addition, Duarte has created public works and community performances at the
World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, El Pital Honduras, Mexico City, and throughout the US.
TinyBe
In 2021, Duarte and Mia Eve Rollow were invited as EDELO to create a livable Sculpture in Frankfurt Germany along with eight other international artists. Duarte and Rollow decided to work with local Syrian and Iranian artists seeking asylum. Mina Afshar-Saheb-Ekhtiari, Khaled Al Salamh, The sculpture was known as The Embassy of the Refugee, addressing issues of global and forced migration, cheap labor, invisible labor, climate justice and the shipment of goods. They constructed a wooden shipping crate housed by a tent and surrounded by a golden scaffold where informal sculptural performances were created.
Zapantera Negra
As the lead facilitator for Zapantera Negra project, Duarte collaborated with Rigo 23 and Mia Eve Rollow; Saul Mendez Kack, Lorena Rodiriguez, bringing in artist and once Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, Emory Douglas to work with the Zapatista. This project united Zapatistas with Black Panther esthetics to investigate the use of the body and visual communication in both distinct political and artistic movements.
Distinctions
Recipient of the
Creative Capital Award - 2019
References
External links
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American multimedia artists
People from El Paso, Texas
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