Curated by Gloria Gem Sánchez and Jynx Prad, We Run Things, Things Don’t Run We celebrates twenty years of Slanguage fostering spaces of deep thought and dialogue around art and identity – transformed into an expanded community of cultural producers, move-makers, and shakers.

Founded in 2002 by artists Mario Ybarra Jr. and Karla Diaz in Wilmington, CA, Slanguage Studio started as their personal studio, but quickly morphed into a safe space for local youth and young adults alike seeking guidance and ways to express themselves. Ybarra and Diaz set the stage for infinite possibilities in our fertile minds, showing folx that art is more than old “masters” in art history classes. Slanguage Studio emphasized that art is all around us in the places and materials we’d least expect, the importance of telling our own histories, and the urgency of challenging the status quo and institutions we breathe in.

We Run Things, Things Don’t Run We is an eclectic overview of 20 artists who have worked with Slanguage over the years in different capacities such as Slang-Air ( artist in residence), Artist teachers, Studio Apprenticeships, and Exhibiting Artists. Through a vast array of mediums and materiality, each artist shares their individuality. Through theme and content, there are influences from the Los Angeles barrio aesthetics, graffiti art, countercultures, decoloniality, and spirituality. Deconstructing and challenging institutional oppression and the systems that sustain the school to prison pipeline is one overlapping theme in works by Perl, EJ Hill, and Arnoldo Vargas. Spirituality and Eco-consciousness permeate the vibrant, effusive works of Sarita Doughtery, Raghubir Kintisch, and Yadira Agredano.

At the core of all works is self-determination, healing, acknowledging and celebrating the ways our roots have shaped us, and the importance of uplifting our personal and/or political histories in order to build a future we can thrive within. This is only the beginning- a launching pad of what possible worlds we can build.
                                                                                                                     – Gloria Sanchez, Curator 
Works by:
Yadira Agredano · Ben Avila · Raul Baltazar · Karla Diaz · Sarita Dougherty · Gaby · Alonso Garzon · Ed Gomez · EJ Hill · Raghubir Kintisch · Antonio De Jesus Lopez · Amitis Motevalli · Aydinaneth Ortiz · Perl · Jynx Prado · Felix F. Quintana · Guadalupe Rosales · Marlene Tafoya · Arnoldo Vargas · Mario Ybarra Jr.

Read more about Slanguage and the artists.
LISTEN to Slanguage Artists Interviews & Commentary.

Upcoming Public Events: 
Saturday, November 19, 3-4:30pm: Slanguage Across Generations Artist Panel

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