is best known for creating temporary installations using construction type frameworks such as beds of dirt, cement, and objects suggesting basic shelter. His installations become sights for performance for community collaborations consisting of the figure temporarily placed within sculptural settings. The work is produced through a situational engagement with active sites of social and cultural resistance.
At an early age, Duarte migrated with his family from Northern Mexico and settled in the farm working communities of the Central Valley of California. He received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and Masters in Sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has created public works and community performances at the World Social Forum in Mumbai India, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, El Pital, Honduras, Frankfurt Germany, Paris France and throughout Mexico and the United States. He has collaborated with autonomous indigenous Zapatista collectives, communities in movement, working children and families seeking asylum.
Duarte is co-founder, along with artist MIa Eve Rollow, of EDELO, a Spanish acronym for (Where the United Nations Used To BE). EDELO was a house of art in movement and an artist residency of diverse practices in San Cristobal De Las Casas, Chiapas, México. The project challenged the traditional artist residency and art spaces in that it placed residents alongside rural autonomous communities that have been using performance, theater, poetry, and a rich visual culture to demand drastic social, political, and economic change. The space invited collaborators to live and create within a period of time. Residents were from PHDs to jugglers, contemporary artists, activists, educators, rural farmers, and artists from autonomous indigenous communities.
Through EDELO, he was lead facilitator of the
ZAPANTERA NEGRA project, in collaboration with
Rigo 23, Mia Eve Rollow, Saul Kak, Lorena Rodriguez,
and artist and once Minister of Culture for the Black
Panther Party Emory Douglas. Zapantera Negra
united Zapatistas (EZLN) with Black Panther Party
esthetics to investigate the use of the body and
visual culture in both distinct political and artistic
movements by facilitating encounters, workshops,
mural events, and residencies in Zapatista territories
as well as participating in group exhibitions in Cuba,
Brazil, Austria, Spain, Mexico City, Canada and the
United States.
Duarte has lectured on his work at the De-young Museum, SF, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - Night of Ideas, as well as at the University of New Mexico, Creative Time Summit in New York, the Black Panther Parties 50th anniversary in Oakland/Seattle and many others. Duarte is a 2019 Creative Capital Awardee where he is establishing nomadic art studios while following Central American migrant caravans through Mexico with the project “Walking the Beast”.
He is currently artist resident at UC Santa Cruz Institute of Art and Science Visualizing Abolition Initiative, and summer 2023 - artist resident at the Headlands Center for the Arts, through the Chamberlin Award for Social Practice. Duarte is professor of sculpture at Fresno City College in Fresno CA where he has his studio.
caleb duarte
EDUCATION
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois USA.
Masters of Fine Arts, Sculpture, 2009
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.
Bachelors of Fine Arts, Painting, 2003
Fresno City College. Fresno California USA.
Drawing and Painting AA, 1997 - 1999
SELECTED GROUP AND SOLO* EXHIBITIONS
2023. MUAC Mexico City, El Giro Grafico.
2022 Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. El giro gráfico / The graphic turn
Zapantera Negra Collective EDELO.
2021 Monument as living Memory, YBCA San Francisco CA
TinyBE. Temporary sculptural interventions. Frankfurt Germany
If I devoted my Life to One of Its Feathers. Vienna, Germany.
Embassy of the Refugee. El Chaparral. Tijuana, Mexico.
Mapa descolonial CCU Tlatelolco Mexico City.
2020 Realidad, Solo exhibition at Art Space Gallery, Fresno City College, Fresno CA.
2019 Iztali, Reality Is A Dream, Solo exhibition. CSU Stanislaus.
Suzanne Lacy Retrospective “We Are Here”. SFMOMA, YBCA. San Francisco Ca.
Internet Archive, Ever Gold Projects. San Francisco Ca.
Future Relations, SOMARTS, San Francisco Ca.
2018 Bay Area Now 8 YBCA.
LIVING MEMORY Paco Das Artes Museo, Sao Paulo Brazil
WALKING THE BEAST Fres.co Art Galleries. Fresno CA.*
2017 A DECOLONIAL ATLAS: Strategies in Contemporary Art of the Americas, Vincent
Price Art Museum, Los Angeles CA.
2016 FLOWER OF THE WORD California State University, Fresno CA.*
REVO 101 La Peña Cultural Center Berkeley CA.
URGENT ART La Peña Cultural Center Berkeley CA.*
2015 COUNTERPUBLIC The Luminary, St Louis MO.
OUR BUILT CITY Red Poppy Art House San Francisco CA.*
MAKING A SCENE SOMARTS San Francisco CA.
2014 ZAPANTERA NEGRA Centro Hemisférico Encuentro Montréal, Canadá.*
RESURFACING Mission Cultural Center San Francisco CA.
IN MOTION Utah Museum Of Contemporary Art Salt Lake City Utah.
2013 BREAKING THROUGH Fresno Art Museum, Fresno CA.
URGENT ART Artist and Curator. La Galeria, SCLC Chiapas MX.*
TRAZOS Galería de La Raza, San Francisco CA.
TRASH MEMORIES Red Poppy Art House, San francisco CA.
2012 PISOS-FLOOR Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco CA.*
CHICANO BIANNEL MACLA, San Jose CA.
2011 EL PLANTON Performance Political Prisoners Hunger strike, SCLC Chiapas MX.*
LONARTE Public Art, Calheta Portuguese.
BEYOND TRADITION Art Legacy at RAC 1980s to the present, Richmond Art
Center, Richmond CA.
THE OTHER CAMPAIGN Sculptural Performance ElAmbo Bajo Chiapas MX.*
NUEVO ARTE, Museum of Mexican Art, San Francisco CA
UNA Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas. SCLC Chiapas MX.
2010 CHIAPAS CHICAGO CONNECTION National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago Ill.
LEARNING FROM INFORMAL CITIES Architecture for Humanity, Chicago, the
Village Igara Brazil, South Side Community Art Center.
TIERRA POR ORO E.D.E.L.O San Cristóbal de Las Casas Chiapas MX.
NO PASA NADA Galería el Cerillo, SCLC Chiapas MX.*
CERVANTINOS BARROCO Centro Cultural el Carmen SCLC Chiapas MX.
2009 MILLAS Y KILOMETROS Jaime Sabines Art Center Tuxla Gutiérrez Chiapas MX.
THROUGH FUTURE EYES Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco CA.
CASITAS VOLADORAS Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco CA.*
TIDE Sullivan Galleries, School Of The Art Institute of Chicago IL.
2008 DIRT WALLS Limn Art Gallery, San Francisco CA.*
NEW TEMPORARY SANCTUARY MOVEMENT MAPP Street Performance, SF CA.*
LIVING PRESENTS OF SPACE Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, RFBI. Red Poppy Art
House, San Francisco CA.
RED DOT ART FAIR Galleria Buenas Artes New York, NY.
2007 CUARTITOS Jack Fischer gallery, San Francisco CA.*
DOMESTIC ALCHEMY MACLA, San Jose CA.
2006 BAJO COSTO El Joven Creador, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.*
GORDO Richmond Art Center, Richmond CA.*
NUEVO ARTE Mexican Museum of Art (nationally traveling exhibition) New York,
Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, SF CA.
A FLIGHT Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
GEN ART EMERGE San Francisco, CA.
FIRST BIENNIAL OF DRAWING FROM THE AMERICAS United States
representative, La Galería de la Ciudad, Tijuana, MX.
2005 CASITAS NEGRAS East Bay MUDD, Oakland CA.*
SHIPPING CONTAINER Port of Oakland Jack London, Oakland CA.*
NOT ROCKET SCIENCE Biannual, Oakland CA.
CALIVERA Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA.
COMERCIAL Red Poppy Art house, San Francisco CA.
VISUAL ALCHEMY Oakland Art Gallery, Oakland CA.
GROUND Works Gallery, San Jose, CA.
2004 PISOS DE TIERRA Gallery 727, Los Angeles, CA.*
LOS MATAMOSCAS Folsom St. Mission District, San Francisco, CA.
PEACE BOAT Exhibition in N.G.O Japanese cruise ship Japan, Brunei, The
Philippines, Singapore, India.
ANOTHER WORLD Mural painting, 2004 World Social Forum Mumbai, India. –solo-
PABLO NERUDA Theater Artaud, San Francisco, CA.
PARADIGMS LOST Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, CA.
RE-MIX SOMARTS, San Francisco, CA.
2003 CASA DE PERRO Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA.*
OCHO Oakland Box Theater, Oakland, CA.
URBAN GRAFFITI Warner Brothers Studios, Hollywood, CA.*
LAND RIGHTS Galeria de La Raza, San Francisco, CA.
ART SHELTER Running Waters Gallery, Sacramento, CA.*
WEAVING CLUB GALLIA San Francisco, CA.*
UNDERGRADUATE SENIOR SEMINAR Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco CA.
2002 FALL OF THE EMPIRE Balazo Gallery, San Francisco, CA.
CASITA San Francisco Art Institute rooftop, San Francisco CA.*
INDIGENISMO Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, CA.
SUBSTANCE OF CHOICE Galeria de la Raza, San Francisco, CA.
LOS MUERTOS San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA.
RESPONSE TO ITALIAN CONTEMPORARY CULTURE Diego Rivera Gallery, SF CA.
2001 PASSING THROUGH Palazzo Piccolomini Pienza, Italy.
VIDEO DIARIES Artists Television Access San Francisco, CA.
NEW WORKS Presidents, Fresno City College, Gallery Fresno, CA.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2019 Radical History Review, Duke University Press.
2017 Collective Situations: Readings in Contemporary Latin American Art
1995-2010, an anthology co-edited by Bill Kelley Jr. and Grant Kester.
2016 ZAPANTERA NEGRA publisher, Common Notions, New York, NY.
2010 NIDO by Rachel McIntire. A collection of artist projects and writings focusing on the act of nest/place making.
2010 Mañana Seria Mejor Poetry & illustration in collaboration with Mia Eve Rollow and Francisco Duarte.
2009, Casitas Voladoras El Pital Honduras. Caleb Duarte and Francisco Duarte. An oral history and social sculpture project.
PRINTED PRESS
JUNE 2015 Mission Local J.J Barrow, Residents shape gentrification as they see it.
FEB 2013 Fresno Bee Donald Munro in Breakthrough Artist Exhibition.
MARCH 2013 FRESNO BEE, Donald Munro.
JANUARY 2013 March El Tecolote, Zapantera Negra at SFSU.
AUGUST 2012 Mirada Sur, Zapantera Negra.
JUNE 2010 Cuarto Poder, Chiapas Mexico. Tierra Por Oro, Belleza Por Terror.
JULY 2010 Chiapas al Día, Víctor Vieyra Santamaría.
JUNE 2008 ART LTD Magazine, Artist Profile by Dewitt Cheng.
FEBRUARY 2008 San Francisco Chronicle, Kenneth Baker, Cuartitos at Jack fischer gallery.
FEBRUARY 2007 Gallery Crawl, KQED PUBLIC TELEVISION on Domestic Alchemy at MACLA.
FEBRUARY 2007 METRO ACTIVE, Silicon Valley California, on Domestic Alchemy, Michael S.
MARCH 2007 SPARK, KQED PUBLIC TELEVISION Artist Profile.
MAY 2007 ART LTD Gallery Review on Cuartitos at Jack Fischer Gallery, Dewitt Cheng.
SEPTEMBER 2007 Art Week, on Urban Shelter, Jakki Spencer.
FEBRUARY 2007 SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE, New York (Reuters) on Nuevo Arte, Christine Kearney.
SEPTEMBER 2004 Los Angeles Times, Gallery Review, A Feel for Activism, Leah Ollman.