FOUNDERS
Federico Cuatlacuatl, MFA
(b. San Francisco Coapan, Cholula, Puebla -México).
Horace W. Goldsmith Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor in the Humanities in the Department of Art at the University of Virginia and currently a research Fellow at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Cuatlacuatl’s aesthetic oeuvre addresses Nahua Indigenous immigration, social art practice, and cultural sustainability. Building on his own experience as formerly undocumented immigrant and DACA holder, his creative practice collides Indigeneity, immigration, and temporalities. At the core of his most recent research and artistic production is the intersection of transborder Indigeneity, Nahua diasporic resilience, and Nahua futurisms. His work has been featured in international film festivals and exhibitions globally including: the Max Ernst Museum, the Kode Museum of Art in Norway, the KINDL Centre for Contemporary Art in Berlin, the BFI London Film Festival, the Larnaca Biennale in Cyprus, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, the Museum of Art Såo Paulo in Brazil, the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, the Sculpture Center in Ohio, the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, and the Tucson Museum of Art. Cuatlacuatl is a co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective and the founder of the Rasquache Artist Residency in Puebla, México.
Erika Hirugami, MA. MAAB. MPhil.
(b. Guadalajara, Jalisco, México).
First-generation transnational Japanese Mexican immigrant, formerly undocumented, of Otomí and P’urhépecha ancestry. She holds an MA in Art Business from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, in conjunction with the Drucker School of Management and Getty Leadership Institute at CGU. She also holds an MA, MPhil, and multiple BAs from UCLA in Art History, Chicano Studies, and Mexican Studies. Hirugami is currently a teaching fellow and doctoral candidate at UCLA, where she epistemologically braids the aesthetics of undocumentedness to challenge immigration policy and politics via contemporary art. Hirugami is the founder of CuratorLove, Co-founder of the UNDOC+Collective, the ED at AHSC, and a Professor at LAVC and SMC. She has received the Arts for LA, NALAC NLI, and DAICOR Fellowships, as well as the CCI Catalyst Award. As a Getty and Kress Foundation Fellow, she has developed curatorial statements at museums across México and the United States. She served as a Public Art Curator for the Department of Cultural Affairs in the City of Los Angeles, and has led various commercial galleries. She has curated exhibitions for galleries and museums worldwide, and her written work has been published internationally. Currently living and working from Los Angeles, California—the unceded land of the Tongva, Tataviam, Serrano, Kizh, and Chumash people.