Luis Valderas
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | a quick overview
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Est. 2005
Note to ALL: This site presents a chronological overview of the Project:MASA Exhibit Series established in 2005. The events' promotional materials, articles, photos and video that were collected from the conception of the project to present iterations of the project are presented as research material and if you have further questions please feel free to reach out via the chat feature on thew site.
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | In the beginning...
l-r Victor Payan, Deborah Kuetzpal Vasquez, Carlos Gomez
Gisha Zaballa, Luis Valderas, Martin Rodriguez
L-R Rolando Briseno, Dr. Ricardo Romo
Describe your image.
L-R Felipe Vasquez, Arturo Infante Almeida
L-R Malena Gonzalez-Cid, Adan Hernandez
L-R Cynthia Munoz, Malena Gonzales-Cid
Project:MASA Ambassadors Paul Karam & Luis Valderas
MASAPORTes and a Space Glove
The inaugural Project:MASA-I was open call curated by Luis Valderas & Paul Karam held at the legendary chicano art gallery —Gallista Gallery in San Antonio, Tx. Project:MASA-II & III were curated by Arturo Infante Almeida-Curator to the University of Texas-San Antonio Permanent Collection. There was an article published in the Summer 2006 premier issue of Chicano Art Magazine About the Exhibit.
Project:MASA was founded in 2005 in San Antonio, Tejas. It brought together both established and emerging artists from the East Coast, South Texas, the Southwest and the West Coast. It not only provided a platform for San Antonio-based artists but also acted as a bridge for creative and intellectual exchange between artists and their communities. The inaugural Project:MASA-I was open call curated by Luis Valderas & Paul Karam.
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | The featured article
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Project:MASA No.3 — 2007
Project:MASA-II & III were curated by Arturo Infante Almeida-Curator to the University of Texas-San Antonio Permanent Collection.
The catalog was not published due to unforeseen circumstances. The link to the draft catalog that was in progress to be published is below.
May be used as source for educational research as long as notification is sent to me via this site chat and cited as a primary source reference as follows.
Project:MASA3 Catalog Draft ©2007 Luis Valderas editor
<https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XbGYQ7E3IwRZ0tJKlx7Kdf2UayuAshVi/view?usp=sharing>
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Featured in publications
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Featured by The Getty
Pacific Standard Time: LA /LA @ USC Riverside- 2017
UCR ARTS presents Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas. A wide-ranging survey exhibition, it brings together contemporary artists from across the Americas who have tapped into science fiction’s capacity to imagine new realities, both utopian and dystopian. Science fiction offers a unique artistic landscape in which to explore the colonial enterprise that shaped the Americas and to present alternative perspectives speculating on the past and the future. In the works featured in the exhibition, most created in the last two decades, artists employ the imagery of science fiction to suggest diverse modes of existence and represent “alienating” ways of being in the world. Drawing on UCR’s strong faculty and collections in science fiction, the exhibition offers a groundbreaking account of the intersections among science fiction, techno-culture, and the visual arts. Mundos Alternos brings together the work of international artists from across Latin America with Latino artists from throughout the United States. Mundos Alternos is curated by Robb Hernández, Assistant Professor of English at UCR; Tyler Stallings, Artistic Director of the Culver Center of the Arts; and Joanna Szupinska-Myers, Senior Curator of Exhibitions at the California Museum of Photography. Kathryn Poindexter, CMP Assistant Curator, is Project Manager. Mundos Alternos is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70 cultural institutions from Santa Barbara to San Diego, and from Los Angeles to Palm Springs. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America. Major support for this exhibition is provided through grants from the Getty Foundation. Additional support is provided by UCR’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS), and the City of Riverside.
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Featured in Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas @ The Queens Museum 2019
& Alien Skins @ The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay & Lesbian Art 2019
Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas brings together contemporary artists from across the Americas who have tapped into science fiction’s capacity to imagine new realities, both utopian and dystopian. Science fiction offers a unique artistic landscape in which to explore the colonial enterprise that shaped the Americas and to present alternative perspectives speculating on the past and the future. In the works featured in the exhibition, most created in the last two decades, artists employ the imagery of science fiction to suggest diverse modes of existence and represent “alienating” ways of being in the world. The exhibition offers a groundbreaking account of the intersections among science fiction, techno-culture, and the visual arts. Mundos Alternos brings together the work of international artists from across Latin America with Latinx artists from throughout the United States: with additional participants, Luis Valderas and Paul Karam, with Sergio Hernández, Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez, Miguel Luciano, Laura Molina, Tony Ortega, and Raúl Servín, Luis Valderas, and . This exhibition’s travel to the Queens Museum continues a national, and potentially transnational, conversation about speculative aesthetics at a time when immigrant futures are facing a crossroads. Home of the past two New York World’s Fairs that lauded New York City as the neighborhood of the future, the Queens Museum is the most relevant venue to host a show of this kind. Located in the borough of Queens, a region transformed by waves of Caribbean, South American, and Mexican migration, Mundos Alternos invites East Coast audiences to imagine another world where many worlds may cohabitate. The exhibition is organized into thematic “constellations” including Cornerstones, Time Travel, Alternate Americas, Indigenous Futurisms, Reimagining the Americas, and Alien Skins. For this iteration, Mundos Alternos expands its interface with satellite installations and programs at partner institutions throughout New York City: The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art will exhibit the section Alien Skins; the Museum of the Moving Image will present a film screening series and lectures organized by Mexico City-based guest scholar, Itala Schmelz; The New York Hall of Science will exhibit artist Rubén Ortiz Torres’s Alien Toy (La Ranfla Cósmica) (1997), which will be complemented by a weekly family activity in the NYSCI Design Lab; and Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, Harlem will organize a series of special programming for children. A series of performances, talks, readings, and workshops will be presented to examine the far-reaching influence of science and speculative fiction in the Americas and beyond. Programming will center on contributions from artists, writers, poets, and musicians that engage “futurisms” from a wide range of perspectives covering geo-political, social, environmental, and personal themes.
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Fast-forward to 2022
Project:MASA-V “Mars Needs More Women” is an exhibit scheduled to open at Centro Cultural Aztlan(1800 Fredericksburg Rd #103, San Antonio, TX 78201) in the Spring of 2022 (March 23rd - June 10th). It is part of the ongoing Project:MASA exhibit series which gathers Chican@ artists that use outer space and science fiction iconography with past present and future tropes to comment on social-political issues that affect our gente presently and into the future. San Antonio Chican@ performance artist Catherine Cisneros of Urban-15 and author/poets Victoria Fennel and Anel I. Flores held a poetry and performance response to the exhibit for the catalog. All of which will be documented in video form for future reference and presentation. In total, this intergenerational exhibit will present fourteen women artists from the frontera of South Texas, San Antonio and Austin(the I-35, I-37, I-69 corridor) dealing with Chican@futurism through their works. They include Cathrine Cisneros, Celeste De Luna, Yareth Fernandez, Brandy González, Suzy Gonzalez, Nansi Guevara, Mari Hernandez, Terry Ibañez, Lizette Ortiz, Pocha Peña, Sam Rawls, Natalia Rocafuerte, Mary Agnes Rodriguez, Ana Lilia Salinas, Liliana Wilson, Cindy Valderas Guillermina Zabala. Link to download catalog: <https://drive.google.com/file/d/174PtoXyvTA-sh2Mc2bmcZClvEwdIDTQk/view?usp=drive_link>
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Enter Cosmic Couture 2022
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Project:MASA5.5
The Eclipse Phenomenons of 2023 & 2024
Throughout human history portals have taken many forms and the parallel realities that they connect are described at length in the myths and spiritual practices of ancient cultures of the world. Modern man’s continued fascination with portals in literature, science fiction, and scientific experiments makes them a part of our common reality. Mexica shamans knew when eclipses were coming and the phenomenon was called Tonatiuh Cualo “when the sun is eaten” by the goddess Tlaltecuhtli. In ancient times prayers and offerings to Tlaltecuhtli were made as part of ceremonies before battles and for women during pregnancy and difficult childbirths. The path of this Annular Solar Eclipse event on October 14th, 2023 not only bisected the country but Texas as well. We believe this is a cosmic commentary to contemporary events. Co-founded in 2005 by Luis Valderas, the Project:MASA Series is now in its seventh alliteration and continues to unfold. In observance of this particular once in a lifetime Tonatiuh Cualo we’re collaborating in creating a cosmic portal ceremonial performance art film for the Project:MASA 5.5 mission. “The Arrival Sequence'' is the first in a series of performance events that are part of the Project:MASA5.5 mission and it occurred during the Annular Solar Eclipse event on October 14th, 2023. The first sequence of the art film includes performances by artists Kim Bishop, Brandy González, Juan C. Escobedo, Anthony ‘The Cosmic Poet’ Flores, Verena Gaudy, Laura Molina, Amalia Ortiz & Canción Canibal Cabaret (Lety RZ, Jacque Salame, Lilith Tijerina, Dr. Kip Austin Hinton), Cindy Valderas and Luis Valderas, as well as musician Christopher Garcia. Working with filmmakers Martin C. Rodriguez and Guillermina Zabala, the first sequence was filmed during the October 14th annular eclipse and it began with the activation of the metaphoric transdimensional portal through ceremony and interactive performance of a ritualized beginning from the state of nothingness. The soundtrack of indigenous percussion musical instrumentation by Christopher Garcia and Amalia Ortiz & Hijas de La Madre as Canción Canibal Cabaret provided the soundtrack to tie the chicano futurist ceremony together. The final ceremonial performance in the sequence for the art film was recorded during the Total Solar Eclipse on April 8th 2024 at an undisclosed remote location along the Guadalupe River in Texas. The mission continued with the activation of the “MASA-Port Authority Naturalization Station —the Sala Diaz Outpost #4” which included an exhibit of the “Portal Arrival Team” and previous cosmic citizens portraits at Sala Diaz during the March-April exhibition slot and additionally on the evening of April 6th 2024 the “MASAporte Naturalization Station—Sala Diaz Outpost #4” that was activated for a naturalization event for applicants to gain Cosmic Citizenship at the internationally known Sala Diaz Gallery in San Antonio. We invited the public to prepare their Cosmic Couture for the April 6th MASA:Porte Naturalization Station Event—Cosmic Citizenship required the wearing of Cosmic Couture by the applicant to the naturalization event. The Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection Exhibit is now on exhibit at Centro Cultural Aztlan's newly inaugurated Galeria Expresiones-2. Centro Cultural Aztlan is Galactic Outpost #3 of Project: MASA (MeChicano Alliance of Space Artists), an ongoing exhibition featuring Chicanx and Latinx artists from San Antonio and South Texas established in 2005. Project: MASA’s mission is to generate an awareness of outer space as an integral part of the Chicana/o modern mythos, reality and iconography in order to hold space. Using Satire, Rasquachismo and Chican@ futurist ideas energizes this exhibition, inviting us to collectively imagine and enact alternative horizons of possibility in which we all thrive juntos. Attendees of prior iterations of this ongoing exhibit were invited to participate in “MASAporte Naturalization Stations” wearing an original cosmic outfit or space suit. The Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection Exhibit features a portion of the series of portraits, or “MASAporte” photos, of attendees wearing their cosmic outfits from previous naturalization events. The exhibit will be open during the reception of Galleria Expression-2 on August 9th 6 to 9pm. Exhibit is on View during Centro Cultural Aztlan hours of operation. Art Film release is scheduled for Fall 2024.
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Project:MASA5.5
The Cosmic Naturalization Event @ Sala Diaz 04/06/24
Click to explore the Outpost
The Project:MASA Exhibit Series | Cosmic Couture
The Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection—2024
The Project:MASA Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection | CCPC
The Project:MASA Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection is made up of photographs from cosmic naturalization events held at Project:MASA exhibits. All the photographs in the collection are framed in gilded frames to resemble a royal gallery exhibit. When these MASAporte Naturalization Stations are on location they act as cosmic ports of entry—portals. MASA-Portes are issued by the Secretary of Space that are merit based, requiring only that the applicant present themselves wearing their cosmic outfit or space suit. The articles of clothing are meant to represent the outside skin that people have to develop and wear in order to navigate social and cultural spaces. All that approach the MASAport wearing their Cosmic Couture can apply for cosmic citizenship and will be issued a MASAporte. The public is invited to participate by wearing their Cosmic Couture as this is an open call for the Cosmic Couture Portrait Collection. Applicants will be expected to submit a release and agreement to participate if selected for a future curated exhibition of the portrait collection.
