Lili Flores is a transdisciplinary artist and scholar based on Tongva Land (Los Angeles, California). Currently–a Ph.D candidate at UCLA Arts, focusing on Culture and Performance, within the department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.
With a background in sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, fine art and digital media, I synthesize ways in which we can tell our plural histories. Research and arts activism conducted with intergenerational BIPOC peoples has allowed for me to apply various teaching and learning practices towards art-making, curating interactive exhibitions and programming.
As a first-generation Mexican-American–I identify as a Native+Chicanx Indīgena, raised in Kuruvungna (West Los Angeles)–much of my own fluid identity informs my research interests in Mesoamerican ethno-archaeology, education, and museum & curatorial studies. The driving force of my research and artistic practice is the trajectory of storytelling as means of performing personal identity and mapping memories.
Photos by Ivan Medrano
Curatorial / Museum Projects
The Sea Around Us Installation by Rebeca Méndez Studio, at Laguna Art Museum; 2022-2023.
Californian Archaeology Month Clay Workshop, Skirball Museum, 2018.
Getty Museum Undergraduate Internship, Will Rogers Historic Ranch House; 2018.
Project M Venice, Art Gallery; 2017.
Fowler Museum; 2016-2017.
Cotsen Institute of Archaeology; 2017.
Dirty Sink, Trunk Art Gallery; 2014.
Oakgrove Art Show, Beyond Baroque; 2012.
PCR Collective Exhibition, Art House Live; 2012.
Workshops / Presentations
UCLA Decolonial Theory + Practice Speaker Series: Counter Mapping Articulates What Is Between; 2021.
Story + Value Mapping Workshop, counterforce lab; 2021.
ABC Abolition Workshop; UCLA Prison Education Program, 2020.
Self-Help Graphics S.O.Y. Artista, Virtual Reality Workshop, TecnoLatinx; 2019.
UCLA, American Indian Studies, Carrying Our Ancestors Home; 2019.
Empowering the Next Generation in Emerging Tech, Latinx in Animation & TecnoLatinx XR Labs; 2019.
Art and Identity, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Anthropology and Archaeology Film Festival, 2018.
Intersectional Artivism, UCLA Immigrant Youth Conference; 2018 + 2019.
Partnerships
UCLA Arts, Dean’s Student Council Representative 2019-2021
UCLA, Design|Media Arts, counterforce lab
UCLA Arts, World Arts and Cultures/Dance
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies