Arlene Mejorado is an artist from Los Angeles who works through analog and digital image-making processes to contemplate ideas around memory, landscape, and placemaking. Often working intuitively, Mejorado’s practice ranges from traditional documenting to staging scenes that merge elements of installation, performance, and studio photography. Her ethos is well attributed to her upbringing in a migrant and multiethnic household as she engages in a form of repair work—countering erasure and mending fragments in personal, collective, and diasporic stories and archives.
Mejorado has been awarded the Center for Photography at Woodstock Artist Residency, Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice fellowship, Aperture Creator’s Lab, and the DocX fellowship with the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Her photography and installations have been exhibited at Paris Photo, The Modern, Luisotti Gallery, Vielmetter, Charlie James Gallery, Culver Center of the Arts, New Wight Gallery, and ICP. She holds a B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.F.A. in Visual Arts from the University of California in San Diego. Mejorado is specialized in the profession of digitization and imaging, preserving and creating accessibility for fine art collections and institutional and community archives.
Education
| 2023 | B.A. in Latin American Studies, Communications, University of Texas at Austin |
| 2013 | M.F.A. in Visual Arts, University of California San Diego |
Solo Exhibitions
| 2023 | a landscape holds you still, SME Gallery, University of California, San Diego |
| 2022 | Desterrando Archivos curated by Erika Hirugami, Tiro al blanco, Guadalajara, Mexico |
| 2021 | Breathing Exteriors: (re)Placements of Memory, Commons Gallery, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA |
| 2016 | La Pulga curated by Lady Base Gallery and r.l. Rodriguez, R Space, San Antonio, TX |
Group Exhibitions
| 2024 | El Cuerpo: The (performing) Body and Photographic Stage, curated by Christina Fernandez, Luisotti Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
| Diaries of Home, The Modern, Fort Worth, TX |
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| Untitled, curated by Alexa Ramirez Posada, Filter Space, Chicago, IL |
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| 2023 | NextGen 2023, Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego |
| Sites of Blood and Water, curated by beck haberstroh and Naomi Nadreau, Vielmetter Los Angeles |
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| MudKin: Mapping Adobe & Land-based Indigenous & Latinx Projects, curated by Tracy Fenix, Roski Mateo Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 2022 | Tierra Entre Medio curated by Christina Fernandez, Culver Center of the Arts, Riverside, CA |
| 2021 | Descifrando Terrenos, New Wight Gallery, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2020 | A través de las sombras, Pyramid Hill Museum, Hamilton, OH |
| #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis, International Center of Photography, NY |
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| 2019 | Dissent: Zine Culture, University of Texas at Austin, TX |
| Photoplay, Galeria Guadalupe, San Antonio, TX |
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| Women & the American West curated by Women Photograph, Photoville, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 2018 | Remedios Sagrados, Luminaria Arts Festival, San Antonio, TX |
| R.E.S.P.E.C.T., Lower Eastside Girls Club, New York, NY |
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| The Lit List, curated by The Authority Collective, Photoville, Brooklyn, NY |
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| Mirame Bien, curated by Rudy “Bleu” Garcia, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
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| Fotografia y nuevos medios: Permanent Collection Selections, MexicArte Museum, Austin, TX |
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| 2017 | Entre Orillas: Borderlands Photography, Galeria Guadalupe, San Antonio, TX |
| Mi Comida, Mi Cultura, curated by Sean Fitzgibbons, Centro de Artes, San Antonio, TX |
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| East of Center: Locals In Focus, Luminaria Arts Festival, San Antonio, TX |
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| SATX, MX: Un viaje lleno de cultura, Centro de Artes, San Antonio, TX |
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| 2016 | Multiples: Artists Within Our Midst, Galeria Guadalupe, San Antonio, TX |
| 2015 | Soy Mujer, Espacio 1839, Boyle Heights, CA |
| 2014 | Illustrating Anarchy and Revolution, MexicArte Museum, Austin, TX |
| 2013 | LLILAS Student Photo Exhibit, Benson Latin American Collection, Austin, TX |
Grants / Awards
| 2023 | Aperture Creator’s Lab Photo Fund, awardee |
| 2021 | Visual Arts Russell Grant, awardee |
| 2020 | Strategic Enhancement Excellence through Diversity Scholarship, awardee |
| Competitive Edge Research Fellowship Award, awardee |
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| 2018 | Lucie Foundation Independent Photo Book Award, awardee |
| Women Photograph Workshop, selected |
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| Authority Collective, The Lit List, awardee |
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| Lucie Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship, finalist |
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| Photobook Biennial of Cork, Ireland, selected |
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| 2017 | National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures Mentorship Grant, awardee |
| 2016 | Fotoseptiembre Exhibition Audience Choice Award, awardee |
| 2016 | Luminaria Public Arts Grant, awardee |
| 2015 | FilmInitiativ African Film Festival, official selection |
| 2012 | Lozano Long Institute of Latin America Studies Academic Scholarship, awardee |
Publications
| 2022 | Óptica 3rd edition, ESTE press |
| Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Volume 47, UCLA |
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| Documenting the Nameplate, Crown Publishing |
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| 2021 | #ICPConcerned: Global Images for Global Crisis, G Editions |
| Óptica 2nd edition, ESTE press |
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| Eyes Open, Aperture |
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| 2018 | En Mi Piel: Colorism & Latinidad, La Liga Zine |
| 2017 | Femme Frontera, Homie House Press |
| La Pulga, Deep Red Press |
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| 2017 | Óptica 1st edition |
| 2013-2017 | Mujeres en Medio, co-founder & editor |
Collections
| Harvard Library Special Collections, Cambridge, MA |
| Library of Congress, Washington D.C. |
| Institute for Diversity in the Arts, Stanford University |
| Nettie Lee Benson Latin, American Collection, Austin, TX |
| Department of Arts & Culture, San Antonio, TX |
| MexicArte Museum, Austin, TX |