MEET CHRIS E. VARGAS
“I am able to mentor an artist using DIY, experimental film and video practices outside traditional studio or commercial contexts, and I’m especially interested in supporting artists critically engaging with arts institutions (and institutions, generally) and their relationship to them.”
Location: Los Angeles, California
Disciplines: Experimental film/video art, social practice/participatory, curation, transdisciplinary
Chris E. Vargas (he/him) is a transdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles, CA. He is the recipient of a 2016 Creative Capital award, a 2020 John S. Guggenheim Fellowship, and was a 2024–25 Latinx Artist Fellow. Vargas is the Executive Director of MOTHA, the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art, a critical and conceptual arts and hirstory institution highlighting the contributions of trans art to the cultural and political landscape. He is co-editor, with Christina Linden and David Evans Frantz, of Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects (Hirmer/MOTHA, 2024).
Work
mentor profile
Given your experience and interests, what kind of emerging artist do you feel best positioned to support?
“I’m interested in working with project-based, inter/transdisciplinary artists. I am able to mentor an artist using DIY, experimental film and video practices outside traditional studio or commercial contexts, and I’m especially interested in supporting artists critically engaging with arts institutions (and institutions, generally) and their relationship to them.”
As a mentor, what would you like to offer an emerging artist? What would you like to receive?
“I am able to assist and artist navigating professional development, especially grant and residency applications. I spent ten years teaching art at the university level and have experience in academic and institutional spaces like museums, nonprofits, and university galleries. But not commercial galleries.”
Have you had mentors of your own? Who have they been?
“Not formal mentors, informally Barbara Hammer, James Luna.”
This mentor is open to working with Fellows either remotely or in-person!
