FEBRUARY 6-MAY 3, 2025
J RIVERA PANSA
DEMIAN DINÉYAZHI’
KHARI JOHNSON-RICKS
GERICAULT DE LA ROSE
ANDRÉ BLOODSTONE SINGLETON
CURATED BY PJ GUBATINA POLICARPIO
to love myself as fiercely as I have in better days.
Drawing its title from Essex Hemphill’s pathbreaking anthology Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992), this exhibition reflects on the vital themes that defined Hemphill’s life and writing, including desire, defiance, kinship, and ritual. The artists in this exhibition, Demian DinéYazhi’, Gericault De La Rose, Khari JohnsonRicks, J Rivera Pansa, and André Bloodstone Singleton, explore the intimate and collective acts of ritual – the sensual, the spiritual, and self-initiated – that call to mind Hemphill’s fierce commitment to self acceptance and possibility.
A celebrated writer, editor, and activist, Essex Hemphill (19571995) is best known for his urgent and uncompromising writing at the intersections of race, class, and sexuality, informed by his lived experience as an openly gay Black man in America.
The works in Ceremonies build on the legacy of Hemphill’s writings and performances, creating moments that celebrate and complicate—queer identity and belonging. How can queer existence be an act of defiance or resistance? How do the survival strategies of Hemphill’s time echo the negotiations of visibility and identity of the present day? Thirty years after his passing, a new generation of artists present a moving and tender tribute to Hemphill’s enduring legacy as one of the foremost voices of queer resistance.
Gericault De La Rose is a queer trans Filipinx, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. While developing her art practice, she worked as a Co-curator of Philippine Objects at the Field Museum of Natural History where she organized a series of monthly events called Pamanang Pinoy using the objects within the collection as conduits for community discussion. After graduating with a BFA with an emphasis in Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she formed an artist collective, Export Quality, together with other Queer Filipinx alumni. De La Rose has also showcased her work in group shows in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, Johnson City, New York, and Toronto. De La Rose attended the ACRE residency in Steuben, Wisconsin and the HATCH artist residency for the Chicago Artist Coalition in 2020. In 2022, she received the San Francisco Foundation’s Jack K. and Gertrude Murphy Award and received her MFA from UC Berkeley in 2023. Most recently, she had her first solo exhibition at Co-Prosperity Sphere in Chicago and finished her artist residency, Arrozidency, at Minnesota Street Project in 2024.
Demian DinéYazhi’ (born 1983) is an Indigenous Non-Binary Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht’ézhí
Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) and Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Growing up in the colonized border town of Gallup, New Mexico, the evolution of DinéYazhi´’s work is influenced by their ancestral ties to traditional Diné culture, ceremony, matrilineal upbringing, the sacredness of land, and the importance of intergenerational knowledge. Through research, mining community archives, and social collaboration, DinéYazhi´ highlights the intersections of Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist identity and political ideology while challenging the white noise of contemporary art. Re/emerging from the havoc of the 2020, their practice contemplates societal, political, and environmental degradation, and calls into question the very colonial, capitalist foundations and structures that have reigned over art institutions that reside on stolen and colonized Indigenous Lands. They have recently exhibited at Biennale of Sydney (2020), Wexner Center for the Arts (2020), Honolulu Biennial (2019), Whitney Museum of American Art (2018), Henry Art Gallery (2018), Pioneer Works (2018), CANADA, NY (2017); and Cooley Art Gallery (2017). DinéYazhi´ is the founder of the Indigenous artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment. They are the recipient of the Henry Art Museum’s Brink Award (2017), Hallie Ford Fellow in the Visual Arts (2018), and Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellow (2019). They are the author of three books of poetry, Ancestral Memory (2018), AN INFECTED SUNSET (2018), and their most recent release, WE LEFT THEM NOTHING (2020).
Khari Johnson-Ricks (b. 1994) is a multimedia artist whose practice includes works on paper, murals, independent publishing and Black vernacular dance. In addition to a solo exhibition at Night Gallery, his work has been included in group exhibitions Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles; Center for Art Research and Alliances, New York; and SCADMOA, Savannah, among others. He has created public murals for the city of Newark as part of Mayor Ras Baraka’s Model Neighborhood Initiative and Gateways to Newark projects. His zines are featured in the library collections of the Met Library, the Whitney Museum Library, and the MoMA Library. He lives and works in New Jersey.
J Rivera Pansa works in occupied Huichin Ohlone Land (Oakland, CA). They incorporate the “grid” form as an expansive field tethering connectivity and structural systems through sculpture, text, and performances. Rivera Pansa produces responsive works reflecting upon humanistic systems in regards to seriality stemming from contemporary capital structures such as digital networks, electrical grid, graphic data, and cartographic mapping. These systems serve as a foil in their navigation into self-determinative networks of kinship - of QTPOC chosen family and diasporic community, presented as installation/sculptural platforms of forum and gathering to convey larger connectivity. Rivera Pansa was born in Olongapo, Philippines and completed their BA in Art Practice from the University of California, Berkeley. As an arts organizer, they served as a co-director at CTRL-SHFT Collective (Oakland, CA), curating gallery exhibitions and performances of QTBIPoC artists, and is a current member and co-director of Real Time and Space (Oakland, CA). Rivera Pansa has exhibited solo and group presentations at Et al. Gallery (San Francisco, CA), / (Slash) Art (San Francisco, CA), Best Western Gallery (Santa Fe, NM), Pied-à-terre (San Francisco, CA), Nook Gallery (Oakland, CA), NIAD Art Center (Richmond, CA), Lane Meyer Projects (Denver, CO), BAMPFA (Berkeley, CA) among others.
André Bloodstone Singleton is an Oakland based Sacred healing multi-disciplinary artist born in Kansas City, Missouri. His art acknowledges, examines and celebrates his enduring survival as a human being and proud descendent of the African Diaspora. He is a thread within a fabric of pioneers on a mission to unite people from an abundance of cultural backgrounds. Singleton’s work continues to inspire courage, pride, and vulnerability, encouraging people all over the world to respect one another so that our communities might remain enriching for us all. He is proud to be a part of the death worker community as a death midwife. He emphasizes that there are things that are worse than death and in fact death is just as sacred as birth. He lives in reverence to those who have come before him and passionately stands firm in his love of/for Black Gay, Queer and Trans folks–past, present and future.
1 Installation view
2
André Bloodstone Singleton, My rainbow is Black, 2025. Mixed media. Courtesy of the Artist
3, 4
André Bloodstone Singleton, My rainbow is Black, 2025 (detail). Mixed media. Courtesy of the Artist
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Khari Johnson-Ricks, Onsen uu, 2025. Watercolor, suminagashi, shellac ink, velvet paper, and colored paper on watercolor paper. Courtesy of the Artist
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Khari Johnson-Ricks, Canopy, cradle, breeze/keep you near me, 2025. Watercolor, suminagashi, shellac ink, and colored paper on watercolor paper. Courtesy of the Artist
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Installation view
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J Rivera Pansa, A.G.C. x 8, 2025 (detail). Glass, mirror, latex condom, tin/lead solder. Courtesy of the Artist
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J Rivera Pansa, A.G.C. x 8, 2025. Glass, mirror, latex condom, tin/lead solder. Courtesy of the Artist
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Rivera Pansa, G.M.P. x 351, 2025. Photo print, aluminum eyelet, steel. Courtesy of the Artist
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Rivera Pansa, G.M.P. x 351, 2025 (detail). Photo print, aluminum eyelet, steel. Courtesy of the Artist
12 Installation view
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Gericault De La Rose, Got To Be Real (BTM), 2025 (detail). Jacquard woven tapestry, rhinestones. Courtesy of the Artist
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Gericault De La Rose, Got To Be Real (TOP), 2025 (detail). Jacquard woven tapestry, rhinestones. Courtesy of the Artist
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Gericault De La Rose, Got To Be Real, 2025. Wood, jacquard woven tapestries, rhinestones, satin fabric, jewelry chain. Courtesy of the Artist
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J Rivera Pansa, S.R.W. x 20, 2025 (detail). Shell, screw post, beeswax, polycarbonate, red oxide. Courtesy of the Artist
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J Rivera Pansa, S.R.W. x 20, 2025. Shell, screw post, beeswax, polycarbonate, red oxide. Courtesy of the Artist
18
Installation view
19
Demian DinéYazhi’, An Infected Sunset, 2018. Digital video, TRT: 04:50. Courtesy of the Artist
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Installation view
21
J Rivera Pansa, S.R.W. x 20, 2025. Shell, screw post, beeswax, polycarbonate, red oxide. Courtesy of the Artist
22
Gericault De La Rose, Got To Be Real (FFS), 2025 (detail). Jacquard woven tapestry, rhinestones. Courtesy of the Artist
Rituals to Self
:
Gericault De La Rose, Demian DinéYazhi’, Khari Johnson-Ricks, J Rivera Pansa, André Bloodstone Singleton
Curated by PJ Gubatina Policarpio
February 6 - May 3, 2025
San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries
401 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 126
San Francisco, CA 94102 sfartscommission.org
Published by SFAC Galleries
Photography: Aaron Wojack
Design: Tuğçe Evirgen Özmen
San Francisco Arts Commission & SFAC Galleries staff:
Ralph Reminton, Director of Cultural Affairs
Ebon Glenn, Deputy Director of Programs
Carolina Aranibar-Fernandez, Director of Galleries and Public Programs
Jackie Im, Associate Curator
Maysoun Wazwaz, Manager of Education and Public Programs
Theo Lau, Program Associate
Matt McKinley, Lead Preparator
The artists and curator would like to thank Matt McKinley and Thi Phromratanapongse for their work on the exhibition.
sfartscommission.org