[Spanish]
Carlos Flores es un artista plástico, organizador de artes comunitarias radicales, curador de arte y cultivador de flores. Tanto su práctica visual como su trabajo organizativo se centran en la creación de espacios para crear conexión, regeneración y ejercer cuidado mutuo. Como gerente de programas en Chicago Art Department, dirige las residencias y exhibiciones de la organización, apoyando a veinte artistas cívicos y más de 100 exhibiciones y programas gratuitos cada año. Carlos también es el fundador de Contra Corriente, un festival anual que destaca el trabajo de artistas, activistas y organizaciones que trabajan para promover la justicia racial y ambiental en el suroeste de Chicago y más allá.
[English]
I am an interdisciplinary artist, flower farmer, and earthkeeper, born in the Lands of Atemajac (Guadalajara) and now living in Shikaakwa. My practice moves fluidly between collective construction, performance, and environmental organizing, using hybrid forms to commandeer tools of colonization and capitalism away from extraction and toward placemaking.
Since 2014, I have cultivated a mycelial practice, working through co-creation and a broad civic rhizosphere to seed social interventions on the Southwest Side. My work operates at the scale of neighborhoods and landscapes, addressing environmental justice, displacement, and migration through participatory projects. Recent collaborations include a socially engaged structure with Human Scale in Marquette Park, one of Chicago’s largest green spaces, offering a platform for neighbors and artists to reclaim public space. In partnership with the Park District, I created Destiny’s Grab N' Go, an ongoing experimental monument that fractures the expected, inviting collaborative engagement while seeding aesthetic collectivization.
As a civically focused artist, I founded Contra Corriente, an annual artist-run festival bringing together artists, environmentalists, and community organizers to make visible environmental racism through exhibitions and interactive programs. My current project, Porta(til), expands on this work—creating portable monuments that connect Latinx/e communities on the frontlines of climate migration and displacement. These wheelbarrow-like structures, made from “bandit signs” posted by gentrifying developers, function as hybrid ofrendas, disrupting predatory land grabs while weaving local narratives into the activations.
Alongside my visual practice, I steward exhibitions and programs at Chicago Art Department (CAD), a community art center in Pilsen. CAD serves as a site of radical imagination, providing space and resources for civically engaged artists through a yearlong residency supporting twenty artists, alongside over 100 free public programs and exhibitions annually. Residents—activists, educators, and community leaders—develop work rooted in justice and civic engagement, forging connections between art and public life.
b. 1992
Education
2016
Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago, cum laude
Residencies/Fellowships/Institutes
2025
ACRE Residency, Steuben, WI (Full Scholarship, forthcoming)
2024
Anchor Curatorial Residency, Chicago Park District / City of Chicago, Marquette Park
2023
Ragdale Foundation Artist Residency, Lake Forest, IL (Full Scholarship)
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) Leadership Institute, San Antonio, TX
2022
Chuquimarca Projects Tanda, virtual
2017
Ox-Bow School of Art Fall Residency, Saugatuck, MI (Full Scholarship)
The Center Program, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL (Full Scholarship)
2016
Luminarts Visual Arts Fellowship, Chicago, IL
LAUNCH Invitational Residency, Chicago Artists Coalition
Awards & Fellowships
2023
Field and MacArthur Foundation Leader for a New Chicago Award
2022
Artist Run Chicago Award
Inaugural Ignite Fund Award from 3Arts
2020
Chicago Artists Coalition Spark Grant
2016
UIC Faculty Award for Art – School of Art and Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Talent Tuition Award – School of Art and Art History, University of Illinois at Chicago
Programming/Curation
2024
diversión, Marquette Park, Chicago
Just Below The Surface, Chicago Art Department
The Other Art Fair, featuring the work of Marylu Herrera and Catie Burrill, Chicago, IL (forthcoming)
2023
Lit & Luz Festival at CAD, Chicago, IL
Contra Corriente Festival, various sites, Chicago, IL
SEEDS Healing Stage Series at CAD, Chicago, IL
2022
Seeds In My Pocket 2022, Chicago, IL
CAD at MdW Fair, (co-curated with Amanda Cervantes), Mana Contemporary, Chicago IL
Contra Corriente, Chicago, IL
2021
Lit & Luz Festival at CAD, Chicago, IL
Seeds In My Pocket, Chicago, IL
2020
Long Time No See, Chicago, IL
When We Fight We Win (co-curated with Silvia Gonzales), Chicago, IL
Tirar y Soltar, Chicago, IL
2019
Caravana Mx, Chicago Cultural Center
Exhibitions/Artist Talks
2024
EXPO Chicago, invited by Hyde Park Art Center
2023
Created, Together Symposium, Philadelphia, PA
Seeding Ceremony, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL
Global Voices Talk, Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago
2022
Dia De Los Muertos: Memories and Offerings, National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
Nubes Art Fair, Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL
POCAS SALON + Contra Corriente 2022, Chicago, IL
2021
Roots and Culture Contemporary Art Center (deferred), Chicago, IL
2020
Artist Run Chicago, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
We’ll Figure It Out, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL
2019
Made In the Fab Lab, Polsky Exchange, Chicago, IL
Post Practice, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL
2017
Front & Center, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
2016
Project Zero Waste, Hostel Earphoria, Chicago, IL
Villarte, 11th annual Arts Festival, Chicago, IL
Luminarts Visual Arts Competition Exhibition, Union League Club of Chicago
As Little Defined As Anything Else, University of Illinois at Chicago
Recent Press & Recognition
Chicago Reader – "Flowers: Carlos Flores’s diversión brings radical joy to Marquette Park" - https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/flowers-carlos-flores-diversion-marquette-park/
Chicago Reader – "Diana Solís and Patric McCoy reflect on lost LGBTQ+ spaces" - https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/diana-solis-and-patric-mccoy-chicago-art-department/
Sixty Inches from Center – "Static Electricity: Just Below The Surface at Chicago Art Department" - https://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/static-electricity-just-below-the-surface-at-the-chicago-art-department/
Sixty Inches from Center – "Anchor Editorial: A Curatorial Invitation" - https://sixtyinchesfromcenter.org/anchor-editorial-curatorial-invitation/
Block Club Chicago – "10 Artists, Advocates, and Organizers Receive Leadership Grants from Field and MacArthur Foundations" - https://blockclubchicago.org/2023/06/20/10-artists-advocates-and-organizers-receive-leadership-grants-from-field-and-macarthur-foundations/
The Latinx Project (NYU) – "Carlos Flores: Ofrenda A Los Arrancados, Ofrenda as Archive" - https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxions/carlos-flores-ofrenda-a-los-arrancados-ofrenda-as-archive/