Julio Morales, “Informal Illustrations,” custom cut vinyl on glass, 16” x 20”, 2002

Artist Julio Cesar Morales and Creative Growth Art Center will collaborate to create a media-based public art project asking, “What is Outside?” Morales and Creative Growth artists will work side-by-side in a studio environment to create projects which ask provocative questions about the nature of “outside” and raise awareness for the work being created by artists with disabilities. Their efforts will culminate with a series of large and small public billboards, a public lecture, and a publication/catalogue that address notions of outsider art through the perspectives of artists with disabilities and a community-based artist.

The collaborators asked:

“Folk art, self-taught art, vernacular art, naïve art, and primitive art. What is Outsider Art? People who make art for themselves or their immediate community, usually without recognizing themselves as artists, at least until someone comes along to inform that they are making art?”

Their efforts will be presented over the course of a year. In October of 2004 Morales will be a participating panelist at the Margins and Mainstreams: Disability Art Today symposium produced by Creative Growth Art Center in association with the Folk Art Society of America annual conference in Oakland. In spring 2005 the artist and Creative Growth will launch a billboard public service announcement campaign in Oakland and San Francisco through the use of mini-billboards in BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cars and San Francisco Municipal Street Cars; along with two or three large billboards in San Francisco and Oakland. The collaborators also will produce a full-color catalogue based on the process of the project and featuring essays by Suzanne Lacy, Tom di Maria, and others. The catalogue will be designed by Julio Morales in collaboration with a designer selected by Creative Growth.

The billboard media campaign will create a direct partnership between Morales and Creative Growth artists and attempt to expand the role of audience from spectator to participant. Morales writes, “I am interested in creating a public media campaign in which the actual designers are the targeted audience themselves.” Morales also will collaborate with Creative Growth staff to develop and implement the projects.

Julio Cesar Morales has taught and created art in a variety of settings—from probation offices to public schools to museums and to alternative nonprofit galleries. His work covers a broad range of media, from public art to photography to video installation and performance. He has been honored with grants and awards from the Art Council/Artadia, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Eureka Fellowships of the Fleishhacker Foundation, and the Creative Work Fund (for a project with Southern Exposure Gallery).

The arts and disabilities movement was founded 30 years ago in the San Francisco Bay Area with the establishment of Creative Growth in Oakland, California. Since that time it has grown to become the largest such organization in the world and a recognized leader in the field. Creative Growth artwork is held in some of the world’s foremost public and private collections—Musée l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, the American Folk Art Museum in New York, and INTUIT Center for Intuitive and Outside Art in Chicago. Its core activity is a studio art immersion program serving adult artists with disabilities. It also sponsors a summer scholarship program for younger artists with disabilities, and an on-site gallery featuring the work of Creative Growth artists. The agency also works nationally and internationally with peer organizations.

Julio Cesar Morales is an artist/educator/curator currently residing in San Francisco and working both individually and collaboratively. Morales was born in Tijuana, Mexico. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where he studied in the New Genres department. His artwork has ranged from photography, interactive media, audio, public art, and video installation. Morales has been exploring issues of labor, memory, surveillance technologies, and identity strategies. His work has been shown extensively in the San Francisco Bay Area and internationally.

Julio Morales, “Tactics of Reassembly,” flat screen, LCD, Analog and Digital Media, DVD, 10 Minutes, 2002

Selected Exhibitions: Solo and Collaborative

• “Informal Economy Vendors,” installation for group show, “Strange New World, Extraño Nuevo Mundo,” San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Rachel Teagle (2005)
• “El Nuevo Ritmo,” Solo show at Espacio C, Canary Islands, Spain, curated by Orlando Britther (2005)
• “El Son Room,” an audio installation for The San Juan Triennial, San Juan Puerto Rico, curated by Harper Montgomery (2004)
• “Que Rico El Mambo!,” a solo video installation and performance exhibition, Fototeca, Havana, Cuba (2004)
• “Wasted Years,” a sound installation at Spanganga Gallery, San Francisco, California (2004)
• “Mambo ala Metal,” audio project with Eamon Ore-Giron, Asociacion Promento, LUCCA, Italy, curated by Carlos Amorales (2004)
• “Dilo!,” solo video installation exhibition, Javier Peres Projects, Los Angeles, California (2003)
• “Paletas,” digital photo light box installation for group exhibition, “At Work, History of Labor in California,” San Francisco State University Art Gallery, San Francisco, California (2003)
• Stephen Wirtz gallery, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Sonido 17,” public art intervention for “17 Reasons” exhibition, curated by Kate Fowle and Jack Hanley Gallery, San Francisco, California (2003)
• “Caramelo,” 3 channel video installation for exhibition of the permanent art collection of The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and Terrain Gallery, for group exhibition, “Xxconagraphy,” San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Pushcart vendor #4,” a sculptural installation for group exhibition, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, California (2002)
• “Pushcart vendor #3 and #5,” photo-based vinyl cut outs for “A Chance Operation” exhibition, McBean Gallery, The San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Tactics of Reassembly,” collaborative video installation with David Goldberg for group exhibition, “Viology,” at Galería de la Raza, San Francisco, California (2002)
• “Disappearing 4,” video installation for group show with DeMo, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California (2001)
• “Fuzzyland,” solo intermedia installation for AOV gallery and Terrain Gallery, San Francisco, California (2001)
• “Disappearing 3,” video installation with DeMo (2000)
• Centro Cultural Casa Lamm, Mexico City, DF (2000)
• “99 Actions,” a collaborative installation with DeMo, David Goldberg, and Armando Rascon for “INSITE 2000,” San Diego, California, USA, and Tijuana, Mexico (2000)
• “Disappearing 2,” installation in collaboration with DeMo for group show at the San Jose Museum of Modern Art, San Jose, California (2000)
• “The Grand Museum series No. 3,” video installation for group exhibition with DeMo, for “Museum Pieces,” curated by Glen Helfand at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, California (1999)
• “CODE 33,” collaborative public art project and installation with Suzanne Lacy and Unique Holland for The City of Oakland, California (1999)
• “Disappearing 1,” installation in collaboration with DeMo for group show at the Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute, and the San Francisco State University Art Gallery, San Francisco, California (1999)
• “Planeta de los Burros,” performance installation for The Toronto International Performance Festival, Toronto, Canada (1998)
• “Carousels,” collaborative video installation with Domingo Nuño, Franklin Furnace, New York, New York (1997)
• “Talking Building Project,” public art project for group exhibition, “Urban Renewal Laboratory,” Southern Exposure Gallery, San Francisco, California (1997)

Awards and Commissions

• The Rockefeller Foundation
• The Art Council/Artadia
• The San Francisco Arts Commission’s Public Art Program
• Eureka Fellowships, The Fleishhacker Foundation
• The Ed Fund
• New Langton Arts
• The California College for the Arts Faculty Grant
• The Creative Work Fund (collaboration with Southern Exposure Gallery)