East LA Artist Marcel Alcalá Is in Full Bloom

“I’m an LA-based puto/artist born and raised in Santa Ana, Ca. I like doodling, making drawings of gender-ambiguous figures, dressing up as a clown in the name of performance art, talking shit about the patriarchy and bullshit white supremacy. Living in East LA gives me so much life, communicating with fellow QPoC artists and supporting the Latinx scene is my goal out here. Obviously I’m gay af so any chance to work with hot dudes is a plus, that’s where Fitch Lunar comes in.

This work in particular is about queer identity and essentialist beauty. Abstract painting and the male gaze as formal identifiers of the idea of “Beauty.” It’s playful and really unserious. Collaboration between my friend Fitch Lunar and I is naturally about the beauty of sex and art.

The Latina identity and how that informs my playfully cynical criticism of the world I experience is also a crux of my work, which simultaneously celebrates this intersectional queer PoC identity. This series shows that as well but in a more surface level, and that’s ok sometimes. Sometimes it’s just about having fun!

The LA art scene is like a spiraling sprawl: a series of huge suburbs. Sounds like a boop, but being a Mexican-American artist, I wouldn’t be based anywhere else. This is home. The queer Latinx art scene is so lit here and that’s what I want to be a part of. Throwing my “Payasa” reggaeton-clown parties, hitting up “Rail-Up”, having a chill sesh at Mustache Mondays – this is my life. I mean I’ll travel lol but this is the battleground.

Yeah check me out on instagram @marcel_alcala or #storming the streets of LA. I’m in a group show at Bruce Laurie Gallery, performing at the Ace Hotel November 11th, and have another group show that I’m excited about called Queer Califas opening in Weho on November 4th. Hit up my Insta for deetz on the daily and next month catch me in Paris at artist residency Parkingstone, run by the amazing Simon Thiébaut. There’s always something to do!”

http://instagram.com/marcel_alcala
http://instagram.com/fitchlunar

Photography: Fitch Lunar