Edmund Arevalo | Filipino American Interdisciplinary Artist

ARTIST STATEMENT

My practice examines the condition of being in-between space collaged within the context of the Filipino Identity and Diaspora. Drawing from Victor Turner’s concepts of Liminality in which he states "The attributes of liminality are necessarily ambiguous... Liminal entities are neither here nor there; they are betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention and ceremonial." ~ Victor Turner

This concept provides a framework for understanding the psychological and cultural space produced by migration where identity becomes fragmented, reconstructed, and continually negotiated between homeland, memory and lived experiences.

Through the process of painting, installation, sculpture, and video I collage and décollage, I reconstruct fragmented histories and personal narratives that exist between visibility and erasure. I use fragmentation not simply as an aesthetic strategy, but as a reflection of the diasporic experience. I layer, and reassemble, I create work that operates simultaneously as archives and living structures that continue to transform.

Drawing from Filipino & American culture, I apply color, layering, dimensional form as vessels for memory. These materials carry histories of migration, labor, displacement, and assimilation. Working with archival traces, familial narratives, labor histories, spiritual symbolism, street aesthetics, and archival imagery the narrative is to construct alternative forms of representation that embody this state of in-betweenness.

BIO

Edmund Arevalo is a Filipino American interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. His work explores the layered histories of identity, and migration. Arevalo weaves his interdisciplinary practice with colonial legacies, personal family stories, and the broader experiences of the Filipino Diaspora. He fuses intimate familial narratives with archival materials, his practice reimagines and challenges dominant narratives of migration, assimilation, and historical erasure. Grounded in both personal memory and collective history, Arevalo’s work becomes a visual act of reclamation honoring his heritage while navigating the complexities of being Filipino American.

He is the recipient of the Quinn Emmanuel Artist Fellowship (2023), and a Not Real Art Grant (2019). His work has recently been included in Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Office (2024), Love Letter to LA Hypeart (2023) at Sized LTD, The New Contemporaries Vol.3 (2023) Residency Art Gallery, A Summer Soirée the Illuminators Gala (2023) at The Vincent Price Museum, South Land Vol.2 (2022) at Charlie James Gallery, Barrio mi Barrio (2022) at South Gate Museum, and Tambayan Vol.2 (2022) at Residency Art Gallery. Arevalo’s work has also been exhibited at public institutions such as the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Vincent Price Art Museum, Torrance Art Museum and Los Angeles City College. Edmund Arevalo received a B.A. in Art from California State University Dominguez Hills (2023).