"Collective Dreaming: LFACxNWC @AIR"
A chance meeting between two members of art collectives in May of 2022 germinated the idea of bringing the art collectives, Los Fantasmas (from Denver, CO) and #notwhite collective (from Pittsburgh, PA) together to begin collectively dreaming.
Over the past two years of online meetings, members shared, learned and planned for two respective art exhibitions: one in Denver at Yolia ArtSpace and one opening in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania on Friday, January 10, 2025 6-8 pm at Artists Image Resource.
Los Fantasmas Artists Collective
January 10, 2025 to February 10, 2025
Tony A. Diego
Tony Diego is an artist that has lived and worked in Colorado for nearly 50 years. Tony earned his Fine Arts Degree with a Human Services Minor from Metropolitan State University in Denver Colorado. He has facilitated and directed youth art and restitution programs in urban and rural Colorado for over 20 years. His passions are art, travel, culture, and long hours listening to amazing music while working in his studio. Tony facilitates Men’s Healing groups that promote connections and respect of our mother earth and the ancestors who have come before us. Colorado is Tony’s home however his life has been forever enriched from having the honor and privilege of seeing art in person from all over the US including New York, LA, and Santa Fe, and internationally in places like Germany and Paris and as far south as Lima Peru and Santiago Chile.
Tony’s current paintings cross over from conceptual art to artivism. He incorporates scenes that are both beautiful to the viewer's eye and portray a message that invites the viewer to take a deeper and longer look. Using indigenous images and focusing on scenes from the southern US, Mexico and South America Tony seeks to enrich the viewing experience while offering opportunities to see our world through a critical lens.
Izzy Lozano
Izzy has worked as an artist and art educator in the city of Denver for the past 25 years. He has exhibited his work as far west as California and his work belongs to a number of prestigious collections as far east as Philadelphia. He has worked for the Denver Public school System for the past 17 years in a variety of situations and demographics, from private to public and alternative, across the metro area. Izzy has worked for institutions such as the Art Student League, the Lakewood Cultural Center and Metropolitan State University. Under the guidance and supervision of Eduardo Diaz, Executive Director of Latino Smithsonian in Washington, DC., Izzy has been a guest speaker in the summers of 2014 and 2015. He is currently the owner and operator of a small residential painting company while teaching Watercolor, Acrylic, and Oil Painting at the Lakewood Cultural Center and Washington Heights Art Center.
Carlos Fresquez
Carlos has exhibited in over 30 U.S. states and over a dozen different countries. He has lectured about Chicano Art history and his own artwork at many colleges, universities, galleries and art centers including Ohio Wesleyan University, The Bronx Museum, Las Bellas Artes in Mexico City and The National Museum of American Art - The Smithsonian.
Selected traveling exhibitions; Arte Caliente (2005-2007); The Colorado Artist Fellowship Awards Exhibition (1997); The Chicano Codices; Encountering Art of the Americas (1992-1994); Rasquachismo; Chicano Aesthetics (1988-1989); and the groundbreaking exhibition; CARA - Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation (1990-1993).
Selected awards include; Best New Public Art - Westword and Reader’s Choice, Denver, CO 2010, The Spirit of Tlatelolco Art and Culture Award, Escuela Tlatelolco, Denver, CO 2010, Artist in the Community, NEWSED 25th Annual Civil Rights Award, Denver, CO 2016 and the prestigious Bonfils Stanton Foundation, Artist Award, 2018.
Website- https://www.carlosfresquez.com/
Grace Gutierrez
Grace Gutierrez is a Longmont, Colorado based artist working in a variety of mediums including painting, ceramics, sculpture, and video art. Her work celebrates her mixed-race, Chicanxa identity, and is a response to deeply personal experiences as well as her family’s experiences navigating culture, heritage, and stereotypes. She is inspired by Mexican folk art, folklore, and literature. Constant reflection of community and cultural pride helps Grace build sentimental narratives to encourage empathy, equity, and pride within our communities.
Grace was born and raised in Longmont, Colorado where she still resides, working to expand creative opportunities for local artists. Grace received her BFA with an emphasis in painting and ceramics from Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2020.
Group Bio: Los Fantasmas Artist Collective is a Denver, Colorado based collective consisting of four Indigenous, Chicano, and Raza identifying artists. LFAC was developed in the late 1990s by Carlos Fresquez, Tony Diego, and Ismael Lozano (all current members) as a response to the local art scene that in our view treated BIPOC artists as “fantasmas” (ghosts) or “the unseen”. Now, Los Fantasmas is dedicated to our communities to broaden the scope of venues available to BIPOC Artists throughout the Denver and greater Colorado area. We create work as individuals and collaboratively that celebrates culture, identity, community, and current issues facing our people and other marginalized individuals.
