Mario Ontiveros

Mario Ontiveros

Mario Ontiveros is Assistant Professor in Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His teaching interests include contemporary art with an emphasis on activist art practices, Chicana/o art, the Black Arts Movement, feminism and art, and critical theory (e.g., queer theory, post-colonialism, poststructuralism). His research and writings focus on the ethico-political dimensions of activist art practices in the United States since the 1960s. In addition, his work engages the formation of various associations/networks of artists, curators, and practitioners that address the economic, cultural pressures and geopolitical transformation of globalization. Ontiveros earned his MA in Art History from the University of California and his PhD in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles.

His professional experiences include working with the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), the Getty Research Institute, and the LA as Subject Archives Forum (Archival Research Center, University of Southern California). In addition, he has served on the board of several non-profit media and art organizations, such as Clockshop, National Association of Artists’ Organizations (NAAO), and Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies (LACPS).

Publications, Conferences, Colloquia
Entry Essays on the work of Alejandro Diaz, Sandra de la Loza, and Christina Fernandez for Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement (exhibition catalogue), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (forthcoming, Spring 2008).

“Chicana/o Art Practices: The Art and Politics of Emerging,” Research Colloquium Series, Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst May 14, 2007.

“On Love and Loss in Art, History, and Practice,” gallery talk for the exhibition, What is Love?, University of Massachusetts Amherst, April 18, 2007.

“Three Movements in Art – The Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights, and Black Arts Movement,” public lecture, Massachusetts Career Development Institute, Springfield, Massachusetts, February 2, 2007.

“Responding to and for Another.” Paper presented for the panel “Facilitate / Relate / Engage: Art and Design Practices in the Public Realm,” The Sixth International Conference, Rethinking Marxism 2006, University of Massachusetts Amherst, October 27, 2006.

“Working In-Common and Cross-Cultural Art Practices,” in Narrative / Performance: Cross-Cultural Encounters at Asian Pacific Performance Exchange (APPEX), ed. Anoosh Jorjorian (UCLA Center for Intercultural Performance, 2004).

“Indebtedness, Engagement, Departure: The SAHC and FREE THE….” In The Speculative Archive for Historical Clarification, n.p. (exhibition catalogue) New York, The Front Room Gallery, 2002.

“The Idea of Art as Activism.” In Democracy When?: Activist Strategizing in Los Angeles, 86 – 89. (exhibition catalogue) Los Angeles: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 2002.

“Under Construction: Conditions, Propositions and Operations from a Generation of ‘Emerging’ Artists and Arts Administrators.” In The Co/Generate Project, 8 – 10. Washington, D.C.: The National Association of Artists Organizations, 2000.

Co-editor, Framework, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, 9, no.1 (1998).

“Clogging the Works.” In Margaret Morgan: Out of Order, n.p. (exhibition catalogue) Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, 1997.

Co-editor, Labor as Process and the Processes of Labor, Framework, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, 8, no. 2 1997.

"Work: Timothy Noland at Newspace, Los Angeles" (Exhibition Review) Zing Magazine, Winter 1997.

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