OCHI is pleased to announce a new project by Marcel Pardo Ariza titled I Am Very Lucky, Very Lucky to Be Trans (2022), to be exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from December 17, 2022 through May 29, 2023 in conjunction with the Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Art (SECA) Art Award Exhibition. Since 1967, the SECA Art Award has honored Bay Area artists with an exhibition at SFMOMA and an accompanying publication. Pardo Ariza was selected by Andrea Nitsche-Krupp, assistant curator of media arts, and Jovanna Venegas, assistant curator of contemporary art.

I Am Very Lucky, Very Lucky to Be Trans (2022) is a large-scale photo montage and installation that appropriates the form of religious polyptychs—multi-panel, dimensional paintings often designed as altarpieces in churches and cathedrals. Prevalent in the early Renaissance, polyptychs combine elements of architecture, portraiture, and narrative painting, allowing for fragmented views of time, space, and myth that ultimately contribute to a larger whole. In a gesture that honors the past while breaking the rules, Pardo Ariza reconfigures the polyptych as a lens with which to view contemporary queer icons. Featuring portraits of thirty-three Bay Area trans, intersex, and gender-nonconforming activists and cultural leaders who are at the forefront of revolutionary advocacy, I Am Very Lucky, Very Lucky to Be Trans transforms one room within the museum into a queer space of worship.

Living in the Bay Area for the last few years, Pardo Ariza has researched existing queer and trans archives while chronicling contemporary LGBTQAI culture. Their collaborative strategies recontextualize kinship and intimacy within creative practices and expand the lineage of photographic portraiture. Giving visibility and voice to a vibrant community of human rights advocates working to build sustainable futures for marginalized people around the world, Pardo Ariza creates tender images that propose a caring present. In the face of anti-trans sentiment and legislature, Pardo Ariza states that “celebrating and uplifting the work of Black and Brown folks in leadership positions is more important and necessary than ever.” I Am Very Lucky, Very Lucky to Be Trans includes excerpts from audio interviews of several leaders, as they share how their life experiences have shaped their work, communities, visions, and multitudinous selves. Reverberating throughout the gallery with subtitles in English and Spanish, these conversations are bookended by “We Are The Ones,” an ode to queer kinship and intergenerational connection in the form of an electronic dance composition by Freddie. An uplifting call to action, the polyphonous vocals reflect the core of Pardo Ariza’s project:

I know that things ain’t alright
But all of my girls are out tonight,
Even if you don’t feel it lately,
Baby you’re a star in the sky

Honey Mahogany, Chief of San Francisco's Democractic Party, Cecilia Chung Director of Evaluation and Strategic Initiatives of the Transgender Law Center, Joaquin Remora, Co-Director of Our Trans Home SF, Pau Crego, Executive Director of the Office of Transgender Initiatives, Director of California Transcends, Aubrey Davis Executive Associate of the Transgender District.