Photo Credit: Daily Republic
About Us
El Comalito Collective Cultural Arts Center is an art space that showcases underrepresented artists through a variety of media that spark consciousness. We create networks that build support and foster opportunities for marginalized voices through artworks that explore the intersections of (but not limited to) race, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, and gender, through a decolonial lens.
Due to the lack of funding and increased rent costs, the Downtown Vallejo physical space closed in 2019, and El Comalito Collective went virtual. A few months after the closure, the COVID pandemic shutdown everything. El Comalito Collective began operating at full force, offering virtual exhibitions through no-charge open calls, artists talks through Instagram lives, poetry and cultural workshops as well as virtual painting classes. The pandemic made us realize that what made El Comalito Collective was not its physicality, but its essence and its mission to offer continued support to community. This is a space for and by community.
Due to the lack of funding and increased rent costs, the Downtown Vallejo physical space closed in 2019, and El Comalito Collective went virtual. A few months after the closure, the COVID pandemic shutdown everything. El Comalito Collective began operating at full force, offering virtual exhibitions through no-charge open calls, artists talks through Instagram lives, poetry and cultural workshops as well as virtual painting classes. The pandemic made us realize that what made El Comalito Collective was not its physicality, but its essence and its mission to offer continued support to community. This is a space for and by community.
El Comalito Collective es un espacio de arte que presenta artistas que históricamente no han sido representados a través de una variedad de medios que despiertan la conciencia. Creamos redes que generen apoyo y fomenten oportunidades para las voces marginadas a través de trabajos que exploren las intersecciones (pero no exclusivas) de la raza, el estado socioeconómico, la orientación sexual y el género a través de una lente des-colonial. Este es un espacio para y por comunidad.
Debido a la falta de financiamiento y al aumento de los costos de alquiler, el espacio físico del Centro de Vallejo cerró en 2019 y el Colectivo El Comalito se volvió virtual. Unos meses después del cierre, la pandemia de COVID lo paralizó todo. El colectivo comenzó a operar con toda su fuerza, ofreciendo exposiciones virtuales a través de convocatorias abiertas sin costo, charlas de artistas a través de Instagram Lives, talleres de poesía y cultura, así como clases virtuales de pintura. La pandemia nos hizo darnos cuenta de que lo que hizo a El Comalito no fue su fisicalidad, sino su esencia y su misión de ofrecer apoyo continuo a la comunidad. Este es un espacio para y por la comunidad.
Debido a la falta de financiamiento y al aumento de los costos de alquiler, el espacio físico del Centro de Vallejo cerró en 2019 y el Colectivo El Comalito se volvió virtual. Unos meses después del cierre, la pandemia de COVID lo paralizó todo. El colectivo comenzó a operar con toda su fuerza, ofreciendo exposiciones virtuales a través de convocatorias abiertas sin costo, charlas de artistas a través de Instagram Lives, talleres de poesía y cultura, así como clases virtuales de pintura. La pandemia nos hizo darnos cuenta de que lo que hizo a El Comalito no fue su fisicalidad, sino su esencia y su misión de ofrecer apoyo continuo a la comunidad. Este es un espacio para y por la comunidad.
Who We Are |
El Comalito Collective was born out of the necessity to create a platform for underprivileged artists to be able to connect and build a network of support. El Comal (the griddle) serves as the metaphor for the platform for which the space was created as el comal is the platform that serves as one of the catalysts for heating up tortillas and bringing family together. In the past el comal was centrally located and its heat weaved the family together, much like present day kitchens do. Tortillas are made from corn which is indigenous to our land and churned, ground, and transformed into maza for tortillas which then get heated on a platform, the comal, to act as sustenance and food. El Comalito Collective hopes to serve as the platform that will create sustenance for the Vallejo community through art.
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Our History
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Established in 2015.
Abel and Edgar-Arturo who are coupled and have experiences navigating the art world both as individual gay brown men as well as a gay couple of color decided to open up the space to honor underrepresented voices and together build opportunities for communities to network and create support. El Comalito Collective was born from the belief that art should be both for and by community. |
MEET THE TEAM
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ABEL RODRIGUEZ (He)
Abel Rodriguez is a Queer Xicano artist who was born in Fairfield, CA in 1979 from farm working parents. He received an MFA degree in Painting from Yale School of Art in 2010, a BFA in Drawing and Painting, and a BFA in Graphic Design from California State University, Long Beach in 2007. His figurative works use personal and historical narratives that intersect collisions of one’s present state with the past to talk about memory, power, and class. He uses colonization and its effects as the underlying structural framework to reflect on the human condition while capturing his approach to making: one of impact, repercussion, and aftermath. He is a firm believer that the arts can transform lives, as art has changed his from growing up as a gang entrenched youth to being the first in his family to attend college. He was selected to participate in the Artist in Residence Program at Recology, S.F. in 2011. He has exhibited nationwide and internationally. Abel currently works and resides in Vallejo, CA. Photo Credit: Reggie Ballesteros Photography |
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EDGAR-ARTURO CAMACHO-GONZALEZ (They/He)
Edgar-Arturo Camacho-González is a Queer Indigenous Xicanx community activist, artist, and poet living on occupied Ohlone land in Vallejo, CA. They are committed to making the communities they are part of safe, vibrant, and welcoming for all by creating work that celebrates who they are without compromising their identity. Their work is a celebratory ode of representation to queer people and people of color. Edgar-Arturo’s work has been published in several anthologies, and they have exhibited throughout the West Coast and is currently the artist-in-residence with the ACLU, NorCal. Edgar-Arturo is a co-founder of El Comalito Collective Cultural Arts Center in Vallejo, CA, and was awarded the “Artists and Cultural Practitioners Grant, 2020” from the California Arts Council and the “Vallejo Arts Microgrant, 2023.” Photo Credit: Reggie Ballesteros Photography |