1. Michael Arcega's practice is informed by history, research, geography and his personal, insider-outsider sensibility as a naturalized Filipino-American; he frequently links historical eras and disparate geographies in order to address the present via the past.
Michael Arcega has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, San Francisco Arts Commission, and Artadia, among others.
Michael Arcega's work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Asian Art Museum and de Young Museum, and in the California Biennial.
Michael Arcega was born in 1973 in Manila, Philippines and migrated with part of his family to the Los Angeles area at ten years of age.
Michael Arcega has had subsequent solo exhibitions at The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Al Riwak Art Space, Asian Art Museum, and Unicorn Centre for Art, among other venues.
Michael Arcega is an associate professor of art at San Francisco State University.
Michael Arcega first gained attention through group exhibitions in the early 2000s of unconventional works offering tongue-in-cheek critiques of colonialism and American politics and culture.
For "Homing Pidgin", Michael Arcega was invited to engage with the museum's extensive Oceanic collections.
Michael Arcega did so characteristically, through linguistic and visual puns, including a series of sculptures spoofing the museum's collection of "native" war clubs that consisted of unvarnished furniture legs and ax handles topped with miniatures of warship fragments or scale models of hotel and beach-resort nightspots, complete with colored lights and pulsing music inside their tiny walls.
In later work, Michael Arcega has examined colonialism, anthropological practices, migrant issues and cross-cultural exchange.
Michael Arcega returned to the project in his 2015 show, "Espylacopa".
Michael Arcega has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from Artadia, Artist Pension Trust, the San Francisco Foundation, Joan Mitchell Foundation, Awesome Foundation and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
Michael Arcega has been awarded artist residencies by 18th Street Arts Center, Al Riwak Art Space, Artadia, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Headlands Center for the Arts and Montalvo Arts Center, among others.