Joel Garcia (Huichol)
Joel Garcia (Huichol) is an Indigenous artist, cultural organizer, educator, co-founder, and Director of Meztli Projects, an Indigenous-based arts & culture collaborative centering Indigeneity into the creative practice of Los Angeles and supporting the creative development of Native and Indigenous artists. He has worked with Indigenous communities across borders in various artistic roles to support land, access, and self-determination issues. His art explores healing and reconciliation, as well as memory and place garnering national press in publications such as the LA Times, New Yorker, and Artforum among others.
Through his work with Meztli Projects in Los Angeles (Tovangaar), he has pushed for and created a nurturing ecosystem of support for Native and Indigenous creatives that centers Indigenous-based cultural practices and knowledge-building efforts. This work has resulted in formal and informal policy changes for artist funding, civic/public art, and other issues directly impacting Indigenous communities, specifically First Peoples.
He’s a current Stanton Fellow through the Durfee Foundation and formerly an artist-in-residence and fellow at Monument Lab ('19 and '22), and co-facilitator of the Intercultural Leadership Institute ('21-'23) which proposes to hold space for cultural production outside of white supremacist frameworks, OXY ARTS, and other acclaimed projects.
Panel: Representation in Museum Spaces & Future Monumentality
The Land Sustains Us | Meztli Projects