[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, curator, flower farmer, and earthkeeper, born in the Lands of Atemajac (Guadalajara) and now living in Chigagou. My work operates at the intersection of communal construction, performance, and environmental organizing, creating hybrid projects that commandeer tools of colonization and capitalism away from extraction and toward placemaking.
Since 2014, I’ve developed a “mycelial” practice, working most often through co-creation and leveraging a broad civic rhizosphere to produce social interventions on the Southwest Side, addressing environmental justice, displacement, and migration. Recent projects include a collaboration with Human Scale to create a socially participatory structure in Marquette Park, one of the city’s largest green spaces, providing a platform for neighbors and artists to reclaim public space. Recently In collaboration with the Park District, I also created an experimental monument, Destiny’s Grab N' Go, a storefront “facade” that breaks viewers out of preconceived expectations, inviting collaborative engagement and seeding aesthetic collectivization.
As a civically focused artist, I founded Contra Corriente, an annual artist-run festival that brings together artists, environmentalists, and community organizers to resist environmental racism through exhibitions and interactive programs. Currently, I’m developing Porta(til), a series of 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, serve as hybrid ofrendas, disrupting the predatory nature of these signs while inviting other artists to weave local narratives and ideas into the activations.
Along with my visual practice, I lead exhibitions and programs at Chicago Art Department (CAD), a community art center in Pilsen. CAD provides space and resources for civically minded artists through a yearlong residency supporting twenty artists, alongside over 100 free public programs and exhibitions. Residents—activists, educators, and community leaders—use the space to develop work rooted in justice and civic engagement.
b. 1992 Guadalajara, Mexico
Education
2016 –
Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago
Experience
2018 – Present
Programs Manager, Chicago Art Department, Chicago, IL
2016 – 2018
Exhibits Technician, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL
Residencies / Fellowships / Institutes
2023 –
Ragdale Foundation Artist Residency, Lake Forest, IL *forthcoming*
National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute, San Antonio, TX
Chuquimarca Projects Tanda, virtual
2017 –
Ox-Bow School of Art Fall Residency, Saugatuck, MI
The Center Program, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
2016 –
Luminarts Visual Arts Fellowship, Chicago, IL
LAUNCH Invitational Residency, Chicago Artists Coalition
Programming
2023 –
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 –
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
Achievements / Awards
2023 –
Leader for a New Chicago Award, Field Foundation of Illinois & MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL
2022 –
Artist Run Chicago Fund for Contra Corriente, Hyde Park Art Center and Builders Initiative
Inaugural 3Arts Ignite Award in partnership with The Andy Warhol Foundation
2021 –
Luminarts Fellow Project Grant, Chicago IL
DCASE IAP Grant, Chicago IL
2020 –
United States Artists Grant, Chicago IL
Spark Grant, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL
2017 –
Full Scholarship, The Center Program, Hyde Park Art Center
Fall Artists Residency Stipend Award, Ox-Bow, Saugatuck, MI
2016 – 2017
Luminarts Fellowship Award, Luminarts Foundation, Chicago IL
Exhibitions / Artist Talks
2023 –
Created, Together Symposium, Philadelphia, PA *forthcoming*
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
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
National Despierta América, Univision, aired Nov 2022