Kiki Chávez(they/them) is a storyteller whose identity as a first-generation Ecuadorian American and transgender artist influences their work and vice versa. They graduated from the University of California, Riverside with their Bachelor’s of Arts in Theatre, Film, and Digital Production with an emphasis in acting and directing and were awarded the Richard Risso Theatre Scholarship (2021 & 2022) and a commendation for Distinguished Achievement in Dramaturgy for “Brownface” by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (2022). In October 2024, Kiki realized their life-long dream by co-establishing their theatre company, Teatro Nuestra Casa, through its debut production, Riverside Dark History Tour.

Victoria Banegas is a Graphic Designer by trade and all around creative dabbler. She loves to explore new avenues to express her creativity and experiment with different materials.During her time at Estudio Aire, she plans on producing 2-3 videos as part of a cooking series that she has been brainstorming called “Handwritten Recipes.” The videos will highlight family recipes shared by her friends or members of the community and they will be shot in an instructional manner. Her goal is to encourage the tradition of sharing handwritten family recipes while also informing her community of cultural cuisine and history.

AIR - Aug & Sep 2024

Alexa Vazquez(they/them) is a queer Chicanx photographer, filmmaker, and all around creative from Moreno Valley, California. Their work consists of analog film photography, capturing everyday scenes using cinematic influences. 

They base their work on the idea of the self portrait and how it reflects identity and all of its different forms. Identity as feelings, as the body, as love, as anger, as discovery, self expression, and as reflection. Photo and filmmaking has allowed them to capture their different phases and feelings throughout the years. With that, unpacking themes of “otherness” and however people may relate to it.

AIR - June & July 2024

Jean Decay is a drag queen going on almost ten years of drag. She is a live performer, preserver of drag history, and writer. Currently she focuses more of her time on her own writing projects and doing drag history presentations in Socal to educate people on lesser known events that shaped the art form.We are so excited for what’s to come with Jean.

AIR - February 2024

Sarah a San Bernardino based contemporary artist specializing in art installations, props, and statement accessories. Her imagination has allowed her to create whimsical and out of the box pieces for events such as The Indio Tamale Festival, Mucho Gusto, and Spring on The Music, as well as her work prominently being documented through a 30-volume photo series titled NAILS, a continuous photo project centered around nail art with sets/props built by Steelo in collaboration with many artist within the art community of the Inland Empire.

AIR - January 2024

Emmanuel, or Emme (pronounced eh-meh) is a first-generation, borderless queer Artist residing in the Inland Empire. Emme’s art serves as a biographical interference and reclamation of his and his communities’ intersecting and evolving identities. Ritual, shifting weights, decay, and mourning are underlying threads in their practice. Blurring the lines between fictional supernatural realms and realities due to migration and marginalization (due to all non-hetero-white structures) has been his current exploration. Where do the heavens, the cosmos, alieness, a bed, an inter-dimensional ship, a womb, a carcass, a heart, anonymity, celestial maps, and phone calls collide with the realities of marginalization due to political borders and structures?

AIR - December 2023

Cherelle is a mixed media artist, born and raised in San Bernardino. Identifying as an artist was a new, exciting, and daunting reality! She currently teaches 4th grade in her home city of SB. Her students are at the pivotal age of discovering their likes and dislikes and of finding their voice. She started creating art at their age. She would make my family birthday and Christmas cards. Then school and life got busy, and she stopped. However, the tragedy and trauma of COVID-19 unearthed her 9 year old instinct to create and she started experimenting with paper, tools, strings and textiles. Her art is inspired by her relationships with Jesus, her-self, and her community.

AIR - November 2023

Gabrielle is a multimedia artist raised in Riverside and currently based in Loma Linda. Drawing inspiration from the intersections of an Inland Empire upbringing and Filipino heritage, her perspective as a first-generation American shapes her creative endeavors. Her art seeks to foster interconnection in an increasingly alienating world, just as it did during her formative years on the early internet. Gabrielle is currently pursuing graphic design at San Bernardino Valley College.

AIR - October 2023

Ariel is a Colton based artist, a graduate of California State University San Bernardino who works in community based art forms while also pursuing personal projects in art. The community art endeavor takes form as volunteer work for organized events such as the Riverside Dia De Los Muertos festival and for personal projects Ariel focuses on a variety of art forms such as painting, printing, paper maché, and furniture design. Ariel is currently seeking a path toward aiding the developing artistic community in San Bernardino to revitalize established venues and provide local artists with new venues to a successful career in the arts.

AIR - September 2023

Miguel Ayala is a multimedia artist from San Bernardino. He has been working to develop art rock band “Cardboard Department” an interdisciplinary performance collective working in performance, song, and visual work mining an interest in the usage of expanded narratives found in the histories of humor, theater, cartoons, children’s literature, and broadcast television; to further examine and navigate the interaction of art & life & the formation of narrative via storytelling and communal experience. Using a low tech means of world-building via sculpture, drawing, painting, puppetry or performance with accessible and available materials, engagement with said worlds bring about a connection to the objects/performances not available via new immersive technologies and further bringing questions of access and engagement with materials for the audience during and after the performance.

AIR - August 2023

Verónica Preciado is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Bernardino. She creates sculptural installations that explore culture, identity and social justice issues. She primarily works with metal, but has also used drawing, ceramics, and performance art for other works. She believes art allows for the transmission of ideas that language cannot articulate. She aims to spark conversation that eventually leads to change.

During her residency, she created a series of luchador masks using welded sheets of steel. The imagery in the masks is heavily influenced by Mexican and Chicano cultures. As a second generation American, Veronica is always learning more about her gente and using art as the interpreter.

AIR - July 2023

Brenda, better known as Angel, is an artist and designer who was born and raised in San Bernardino, CA. She specializes in bright, bold, and colorful character work. Ever since she was little she enjoyed going outdoors and exploring. The moment she would set foot out into nature her imagination would run free, she would create these beautiful illustrations. It all began with a touch, a scent, and the sound of nature. Her goal as an artist is to create a world that brings joy and inspires others to explore their own imagination.

AIR - June 2023

José Luis Ledezma, better known as Aguatl is a first-generation Chicano who loves to explore and celebrate his cultural identity as a visual and performing artist residing in San Bernardino, California. The resilient barrio music and culture that surrounded him growing up had a deep influence on his creative expressions, which includes multi-instrumentalism, folkloric storytelling, poetic expression, and visual arts. Since 1999, he has been actively practicing and teaching music and culture within the Inland Empire communities. In 2009, he founded MILPA, a collective dedicated to bringing music and culture into underprivileged areas that lacked sufficient funding for artistic programming. Through MILPA, they’ve been able to compose and perform Afro-Indigenous music, present ethnomusicology workshops, and lead assemblies for children and families. he is fascinated by the transformative power that music has in bringing people and communities together.

AIR - May 2023

Mariah, a multi talented artist and creative, has a unique take on the IE, and in the different forms of maneuvering and expressing her creativity, the passion she has for her work definitely comes across. Whether it's painting, teaching, installing, curating, and archiving (to name a few), her dedication and intention is what makes her work rich.

During her residency she hosted BLACK CITRUS - a solo install exhibit and held an after studio hours film screening of “Space is the Place”.

AIR - April 2023

Kristen, locally known for her grassroots organization socaltrasharmy serving the IE. She encourages her fellow humans to get actively involved with the spaces around them and together achieve goals in a positive and progressive manner.

In 2017, Kristen experienced a warehouse workplace injury, causing her to become "permanently disabled". Her disability took the use of both arms and both hands, and she "had to learn everything all over again," including how to love and accept herself." She set on a mission to make her life mean something and find purpose again, a continuing work in progress.

AIR - March 2023

Adam is a multi medium artist.

His art practice rotates between block printmaking, thread art, acrylic and oil paint, spray paint, digital art, woodworking and pyrography using his CNC laser.

During his residency, he hosted a print demo where he printed his largest woodcut piece yet titled “RADIANT”

AIR - February 2023

Alexandra is a library worker and writer born and raised in the Inland Empire.

She has published multiple zines and two poetry collections. Heartbreaker was published by Wax Nine in 2022 and Our Lady of Perpetual Desert is forthcoming on Inlandia Books.

During her residency, she hosted a writing workshop for youth titled “No Past No Future Know Past Know Future”. Together, they generated poems envisioning a type of future inspired by or in spite of the past.

AIR - January 2023

Collrane is an artist who focuses on tarot and spirituality. Watercolors are their preferred medium, but they also play with sculptures using found and natural items, oil and acrylic paints, charcoal, and collage.

They like to observe how the elements are involved in the meaning we make during our creative process, and how our emotions become the art we create. Relationships and community as well as self definition are also very important in their work

During their residency, they hosted a water color and tarot workshop as well as built a community altar with the creative community of the Garcia Center for the Arts. They debuted their project “Apocalyptic Theatre”, a 38-card tarot ‘signifier’ deck, focused on how we create our identity through our spiritual journeys.

AIR - December 2022

Stephanie better known as stephytoons has been in the art realm since 2012 and released her most well known comical illustration series, Filo da cat, in 2016. Her aim with Filo da cat was to make people laugh, but he evolved into a character that inspires and fosters imagination. Although he is just a feline, he truly represents the world in which Stephytoons grew up.

During her residency, she hosted a character design illustration workshop where she went into the basics on how to build a character and animate them.

AIR - October 2022

Micah is a WOC artist that creates illustrations and characters that center around BIPOC. Her inspiration comes from her mixed heritage and wanting to represent POC in the art community.

During her residency, she hosted a spooky themed paint sesh for youth and their adults. She now hosts monthly paint seshes through the Arts Connection at the Garcia Center for the Arts.

AIR - September 2022

Amy is a photographer, installation artist and documentary filmmaker. Her photography and video work focus on her hometown of San Bernardino, emphasizing on the neighborhoods and people, as well as highlighting the Drag Scene in DTLA. Amy is currently working on a video documentary series highlighting the diverse Latinx Queer population.

During her residency, she hosted “TIES”, an event designed to strengthen ties between LGBTQIA+ POC allies and individuals.

AIR - August 2022

L was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. She is an emerging, interdisciplinary artist currently exploring co-creating with nature, ancestral memory, intuitive movement and new media (expression through poetry, video collages and sound).

During her residency, L hosted Masks + Mirrors, a mask making workshop where people were able to self-reflect, exploring the masks they wear in their daily lives and how they serve to earn us approval/ disapproval. This event was followed by a screening of a community poetry project which now tours different spaces.

AIR - June 2022

Cesar is a print maker who was born and raised in Oaxaca, Mexico. He is pulls a majority of his inspiration from its Zapotec culture.

During his residency, he hosted printmaking and stencil workshops. He then was a catalyst that sparked San Bernardino’s first ever print making collective “Grafica Nocturna”.

AIR - April 2022

Alexa is from Oaxaca, Mexico and was raised in the United States by immigrant parents. Alexa’s work is multi-disciplinary and often political. She uses paint, dance, craft, fashion and sculpture to understand and express life.

During her residency, Alexa held her gallery debut show CISNE. It was a visual celebration of her story as a migrant child. It is through this majestic migratory queer bird that she formed bonds with her own migration, queerness, ancestors and art. CISNE, is her reclaiming and reimagining a difficult queer childhood in America through mixed media.