Happy Birthday Billie Holiday
A couple of sketches prior to the execution of the “River to the sky” mural on the corner of Turk and Hyde in San Francisco. Billie Holiday did her last West Coast tour at the Blackhawk Jazz Club, which was located on this corner between the years 1948-1961. More info about the Jazz Club here
The Ambassador Hotel re-opening with my mural
Solaz get an award at the IZZIE’S
Special Achievement Award for Outstanding Production Honoree
La Tania Baile Flamenco and the Presidio Theatre recognized for the outstanding production of Solaz an immersive flamenco, multimedia performance with choreography by La Tania, artistic direction by La Tania and Adrián Arias (visuals)
Photos and video by Adrian Arias, except when Adrian appears, photo by Julie Mushet. Link to see a SOLAZ 2 minutes video clip HERE
Remembering Jess Curtis
#adrianariasart
Upcoming Exhibition of new work
Dear community, my next exhibition of recent works will be in a different, unconventional space, and very connected to my new series of Hearts/Corazones and drawings made after a dream or a vision. It will be at the eleventh house, 7 Bolinas road, Fairfax, California. opening on Saturday March 16 at 7pm. There will be some lately created work live at Freight & Salvage with the legendary Bobby McFerrin Circle Songs.
Manifest Differently at Minnesota Project
Live painting for 2 hours at Manifest Differently
I’m participating in the Manifest Differently exhibition curated by Megan Wilson, Kim Shuck and Trisha Lagaso, at the Minnesota Project, from February 3 to March 16, 2024. With this interactive tree and with these two works related to my feeling as an immigrant, and with a Tree of Life for an interactive experiece with the audience.
Live painting at John Santos and Bobby McFerrin
In the past few months I have participated in several live painting sessions with great musicians from the Bay Area. Here are images from John Santos’ CD Release and some images from my usual participation in Bobby McFerrin Circle Songs Mondays. Both at Freight & Salvage, Berkeley.
Hank Wilson mural at the Ambassador hotel in San Francisco.
Ancestral Hummingbird at Mission District in San Francisco
Part of the series of Ancestral Hummingbirds that I have painted in Peru and Mexico, now in San Francisco, on the corner of 24th Street and Osage Street, half a block from Mission Street, in front of the BART station. More murals here
Ancestral Hummingbird at SFO
As part of Day of the Dead organized by the San Francisco International Airport, here images of the great experience at Terminal 2.
Ancestral Hummingbird at the Exploratorium
As part of Day of the Dead organized by Marigold Project.
Día de los Muertos at SOMArts, 2023
Dia de los Muertos exhibition at Somarts, curated by Rio Yañez and Bridgétt Rex. There I have an altar-installation dedicated to the great Harry Belafonte and the sacred Hummingbirds. Open until November 3, 2023 in Somarts, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco
New solo exhibit at ATA
thanks to Trisha Lagaso, Megan Wilson, Kim Shuck, all Mannifest Differently team, and Rene Yañez Presente! Show open October 8-31, 2023. ATA is located at 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco.
New mural at the corner of 23rd Street @ Folsom
“La mujer Indígena no es invisible”, mural unveiling on Saturday October 7th, Red Poppy Art House, 2698 Folsom St, San Francisco. Thanks to Dina Zarif, Reneé Baldocchi and Finny Balboa for the support, thank you to Jorge Molina and Kim Shuck for the Land Acknowledgment and poetry. And thank you Lindsey Crawford for your help painting this mural.
Dia de los Muertos / Marigold Project
I have the honor of co-curating Dia de los Muertos at the Marigold Project with Rosa de Anda, holding two exhibitions and ceremonies at the Exploratorium on October 19 and at Potrero del Sol Park on November 2. Participating artists are Mara Lea Brown, Susan Matthews, Lila Maes Shah, Danielle Revives, Bryan Dominguez, Fiorella Dominquez and Arturo Mendez
Altar installation for Dia de los Muertos at SOMArts
opening on October 6th, 6-9 pm SOMArts, 934 Brannan St, San Francisco
New Mural at Clarion Alley
Inspired by this drawing, which is part of a dream with my ancestors, I paint this mural in September, as part of the Mannifest Differently event.
New Murals in Mexico & Peru
Ancestral hummingbird at Bundo Cafebreria, Xalapa, Mexico and at Kasa Kambalache, Lima, Peru 
SOLAZ
at the Presidio Theatre in San Francisco
photos byKegan Marling
photo by La Tania
Multidisciplinary Flamenco and visual show, created by La Tania and Adrian Arias, with music by Jose Luis de la Paz, dance by Mizuho Sato, Melissa Cruz and Cristina Hall, cante by Jose Cortes, and musicians Gary Haggerty and Faisal Zedan.
More information about the artists HERE
World Premiere, July 21 at 7pm, Shows also on July 22 at 7pm and July 23 at 4pm. Buy tickets for SOLAZ HERE
New exhibition
SOLAZ Multidisciplinary flamenco show
I am happy to announce my collaboration with La Tania Baile Flamenco, in the creation and co-direction of SOLAZ, which will be presented at the Teatro Presido on July 21, 22 and 23. You can see the complete information and get your tickets HERE.
After my artistic trip to Paris, a collection of new pieces. More art HERE
MURAL at FREIGHT & SALVAGE
I’m so happy to announce that I was selected to create a mural at the iconic Freight & Salvage in Berkeley
And FaceBook page for comments here
MARCH-APRIL-MAY PERFORMANCES
Saturday March 25, Grand Opening and Party for the Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution at CAST & 5M Park
Saturday April 1st, I’m curating MAPP-Illusion show at the Red Poppy Art House
Sunday April 2nd I will be performing a special poem, as part of John Santos
Saturday April 15 and Sunday April 16, Adrian will be performing with his group PERFORMANCE L.A.B. at D.I.R.T. Festival, at Dance Mission Theater
May 20 & 21. Performance LAB presents “Pieces of Time”
More info and Buy tickets HERE
Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution
I am happy to announce that The Tarot in Pandemic and Revolution will have a great public birth on Saturday March 25, 2023 on CAST. Full information here
And you can contact me at adrian.arias@gmail.com if you like to buy a deck
Image reclaiming the power of the Indigenous Woman
Indigenous Woman of the Americas is not invisible (3)
Watercolor and ink on Arches paper, 26 x 40 inches
Indigenous Woman of the Americas is not invisible (2)
Watercolor and ink on Arches paper, 26 x 40 inches / Private Collection
New work – Pandemic Art
The New Monolith (1) -negative-. Acrylic on canvas, 30×40 inches
“Flooding in my used covid test cabinet, while a california golden trout streaked across the sky casting ancestral blessings”. Acrylic and watercolor on Arches paper. 26 x 40 inches
“Strange Totem from the 21st century found in an old abandoned house in the desert in a full moon night”. Acrylic, ink and rainwater on Arches paper. 22.5 x 30”. Acrylic and watercolor on Arches paper. 26 x 40 inches
Live painting at the Berkeley Museum
As part of the Full Long Moon celebration, and dedicated to the Tarot in Pandemic & Revolution
Adrian in a news article on KQED, NPR, Click HERE
New private mural in Lima, Peru
The image represents the birth of a bird when two people meet. The iconography and graphic images are inspired by Mochica-Chimu designs, ancestral cultures of ancient Peru, and in nature.
Adrian’s new book of poetry
will be presented in Lima on November 29, 2022. Edited under the Peisa publishing house, and with a preface by Mario Bellatin.
Visual collaboration with “Archipielago”, play created by Begoña Caparrós in Madrid, Spain
Altar Sound-installation by Adrian will be at the Exploratorium
Opening November 10, closing December 4th.
This altar sound-installation, with music specially composed by Anais Azul, was part of the Day of the Dead organized by the Marigold Project at the Potrero del Sol Park.
More images of Adrian’s Día de los Muertos installations HERE
Adrian in new book about Artists in San Francisco, 2022
I am very grateful to be a part of this book edited by Shizue Seigel with 16 pages of my multidisciplinary art.
If you want to buy it go to this LINK
MURALS
“River to the Sky”
A mural on the corner of Turk and Hyde in San Francisco, honoring Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, the Blackhawk Jazz Club, BLM, the sacred water and rivers under the ground, the California Poppies, the Ohlone territory, my ancestral Mochica land.Thank you Darryl Smith of Luggage Store Gallery and Someland FoundationThank you Kasey Rios Asberry and the Tenderloin neighborhood, Caleb, Krissy and Stella for your incredible help.69 second video showing the making of River to the Sky HEREImages from the process and the finished mural
Complete Statement and meaning of RIVER TO THE SKY HERE
Mural at GOOGLE
Very proud to have been part of an Art Residency at the new Google facilities, creating a two stories four walls mural dedicated to my grandparents: Love story of Hummingbirds and Ancestors
These hummingbirds tell us a love story that made my grandparents’ hearts beat on their night of love, after which my family grew like a garden, always visited by more hummingbirds. Hummingbirds are sacred messengers between life and death, between what must be transformed to stay alive.
CLICK HERE to read about the 9 selected artists and Adrian’s explanation and images at the end of the article.
Official opening TBD
New Mural @ MAGIC THEATRE in San Francisco
“Indigenous Women are not invisible”
The image of this indigenous woman is based on four native women from the territory that we now call America. Woman of Mochica ancestors in Peru, my culture, mixed with Nukak Woman native to the Colombian Amazon, from which I have been inspired in her face painting. Ohlone woman, who also painted her face with that black line and other parts of her body. And Yuma and Pápago Woman from the border area between what we now call Arizona and Mexico, whose hat I have used, which is a basket, and also features of her face.
On her chest you can read “My Body Not Yours”, and also in Spanish “Mi cuerpo, Mi Alma”. It bears the image of the fallopian tube, as a sign that indigenous women also have reproductive rights. In her right ear she wears a “Chakana” which is an aboriginal symbol of the indigenous peoples, of what was the Tahuantinsuyo (now part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina) that is more than four thousand years old, and represents a four-sided ladder, connecting the four elements and the four directions. And in her left ear she wears an earring with the inscription “Say Her Name”, which is a social movement that emerged to denounce police brutality against black Women, and in this case, it is also a claim for indigenous Women.
“Dreams and Suitcases” ephemeral mural at The Red Poppy Art House
Adrian Artist in residence at the Red Poppy Art House. Several events and art pieces will be created at the RPAH. Here the link to see Live painting by Adrian on June 18, 2022 LINK
Mini ILLUSION show 10.1 @ Red Poppy Art House
Mini Illusion show 10.1 created by Adrian on June 4, 2022. With special guests Mara Brown, Pancho Peskador, Tongo Eisen Martin, Josiah Alderete, Lucia Lilikoi, The Genie and Monica Maria Fimbrez.
TAROT in Pandemic & Revolution24 visual artists and 43 poets from the Bay Area participating in this unique Tarot deck, whose idea came from a dream of Adrian.
You can order your deck HERE
Adrian in Instagram:
Dia de los Muertos @ SOMArts
dedicated to five human beings who lost their lives due to police brutality
Altar for Jack Hirschman
With tremendous pain, I am drawing this life-size portrait of Jack, unstoppable poet, friend, and mentor, who rests in the pantheon of revolutionary poets.
Jack Hirschman, December 13, 1933 – August 22, 2021
Jack and Adrián at the entrance of the Red Poppy Art House in 2004.
My first poetry reading in San Francisco was with Jack at Café Boheme in 1999
Gracias querido poeta
Adrian´s statement here
New Flower series
Anna Halprin, teacher and friend who is always with us. Her wisdom will continue to inspire us, to create artistic spaces that help us reconcile life with the body, humanity with social justice, inner strength with the energy of our senses. Thank you Anna for everything you gave us.
Altar for Anna at MCCLA 
Adrian 15 minutes collaboration online with Darren Johnston in trumpet, Shania Rasmussen in dance and Amy Seiwert as producer. February 2021
“Adrian´s Art in Pandemic & Revolution” a virtual exhibition, at the Red Poppy Art House in San Francisco.
Dance and painting collaboration with Mimi Cezanne Stoll at the Red Poppy exhibit “Adrian´s Art in Pandemic & Revolution”
Another mural at Grand Ave in Oakland, supporting local business
New temporary murals at Lakeshore in Oakland
@ Good Vibrations, first sex-positive and women-friendly store in the United States, founded in 1977 by Joani Blank. In 1992 it became a cooperative of its workers and in January 2012 open its 6th store in Lakeshore Ave. in Oakland, where this temporary mural is located. As part of their recognition as a leader in sex-positive culture and education, GV received a Certificate of Honor from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Last live-performance-painting @ Machina Loci Space in Berkeley
50 seconds time-lapse here
New Mural @ Machina Loci space in Berkeley. Life is a Treasure was a live paint improvisation, for 3 hours while Anais Azul played music on September 27th 2020.
Thanks to Carol Mancke for the commission to create this piece.
You can see 3 hours work in one minute time-lapse HERE
Also here the Adrian Time-lapse collection and more in his VIMEO page
Adrian Arias is an American poet, visual artist and performer. He was born in Peru and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2000. Adrian reinvents animals, creates dream-based languages and codes, explores the absurd and the surreal visually and creates paintings in action and murals related to the pandemic and the social revolution that we are experiencing.
Adrian use movement as a form of art, as a choreographer and visual poet. Adrian is also a cultural promoter, art teacher and artivist actively working in the community, receiving commissions to create murals in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of California.
Letter A as part of Black Lives Matter on the asphalt of Petaluma Public Library
“8:46” Altar installation for Day of the Dead at SOMARTS San Francisco, 2020
Mural commission in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“Adrian Arias, the ever brilliantly inventive poet of the gesturing Word” Jack Hirschman, poet and activist, San Francisco Poet Laureate.
Here you can see his new series of painting in pandemic
Here PANDEMIC CREATIONS in collaboration
Here my STORE with small paintings
Adrian lives and works in Oakland, California.
