To my own surprise, I have developed a body of visual art that includes photography, video and art installations. This body of work started out as a bi-product of creating images for my writing, supporting families impacted by police violence to tell visual stories about their justice cause, and other storytelling projects.

Installations

  • July 7 to October 29, 2023, “Eviction Scene Investigation”, reinstallation of a collaboration with Yolanda López, now with son Río Yañez, San José Museum of Art (SJMA) presents Yolanda López: Portrait of the Artist
  • October 31-November 10, 2020. “Who are our beloved departed/ Quiénes son nuestros amados difuntos”, Storefront Día de Muertos Altar project, ReclaMisión, located at Acción Latina on 24th Street
  • October 6-November 5 2017. “Hilando la vida de una maya/ Threading the life of a Mayan”, SOMARTS Day of the Dead Altar Exhibit. A collaboration with José Góngora Pat and Paz de la Calzada in honor of Luís Góngora Pat, a Mayan man killed unjustly by SFPD, and the women in his family who are left mending the threads of a broken migration story. The installation uses poetic references to textile as text, textile as a silent voice, embroidering as a Mayan art form, Mayan language, distance, and threads of migration; all while presenting a non traditional Day of the Dead altar for Luís Góngora Pat.
  • March-April 2017. “Untitled”, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 30th Anniversary of Solo Mujeres Exhibition, an installation collaboration with Yolanda Lopez portraying three Chicana artists from three overlapping generations in a social media dialogue about the call to duty to resist injustice.
  • October-November 2016. Installation. “A Traditional Mayan Altar in Honor of Luis Góngora Pat, killed by SFPD April 7, 2016,”  in collaboration with José Góngora Pat, Luís Poot Pat, Carlos Poot Pat, Flora Campoy, Pearl Ubungen, SOMARTS Annual Day of the Dead Altar Exhibit, Theme: Promise Not To Forget. Documented here.
  • October 11-November 8, 2014. “The Twilight of Alex Nieto.” A Day of the Dead altar and video installation. Altar collaboration with Elvira Nieto, Refugio Nieto, Ivonne Iriondo, Maria Villalta, and Paz de la Calzada, SOMARTS. Video collaboration “The Twilight of Alex Nieto”, Directed and produced by Adriana Camarena, and filmed and edited by Ivonne Iriondo. Documented on website under #October Together, More Than Just Baseball
  • October 11-November 14, 2014. “Unaccountable murders.” A Day of the Dead altar and video installation in collaboration with Erin McLeroy of the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project & videographer Ivonne Iriondo. Visitors were invited to chalk a response on the wall to “Who or what do the police protect?” Documented on website, under #October Together, More Than Just Baseball
  • February-March 2014. Installation. “Eviction Scene Investigation“, a collaboration with Yolanda Lopez, 17th Annual Sólo Mujeres Exhibit, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Documented here.

Exhibited videos

  • Selection of videos from Campfire series and the “Twilight of Alex Nieto” in “To be and to become Mission Street San Francisco”, Exhibition, August 15 to October 13, 2017, CIIS. (Note. Saturday, August 26, 6:30-9:00PM Exhibition opening reading)
  • Ivonne Iriondo and Adriana Camarena, “The Twilight of Alex Nieto” exhibited as part of FTP: For the People, La Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA . May 7-June 4, 2016.
  • Campfire storytelling series, documented in collaboration with the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and Shaping San Francisco under the 2013 Calhum grant in the AEMP exhibit in YBCA Take This Hammer March-July, 2016.