Victor Cartagena
Teaching Artist
Staff Member since 2008
By Kate Thompson
Salvadoran-born Victor Cartagena has been making art in the Bay Area since the late 80s. The work that he produced in the early to mid-1990’s battled with memories of the violence in El Salvador and the pain and separation he experienced in relocating to the US. Cartagena’s work in the past decade moved beyond solely articulating the immigrant experience to address other sociopolitical issues. His artistic practice ranges from printmaking, drawing and painting, to sculpture, audio and video installation.
In the San Francisco-Bay Area, Cartagena has exhibited at the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley, Galeria de la Raza, Intersection for the Arts, Southern Exposure, the Mission Cultural Center, the Oakland Museum, and the African American Museum and Library. Cartagena has exhibited in Central and South America, as well as Europe.
As an educator, Cartagena has served as Artist-in-Residence at ZEUM,Southern Exposure, and SF Art Commission’s WritersCorps, and has given numerous workshops at SFMOMA. He was on the faculty of Arrowsmith Academy from 1998 to 2006, where he taught printmaking, mixed media, experimental video and sculpture. Cartagena joined Creativity Explored’s teaching staff in 2008.
“Creativity Explored is an open space, a safe place where one does not have to “watch his/her back.” It’s an art workshop full of tenderness, creativity, love, friendship, understanding, and above all a laboratory of art distinguished by authentic artists.”
