On Thursday, March 18th, 2021 at 6pm PST, Friends Indeed is pleased to host a talk on the legacy of San Francisco artist Carlos Villa (1936-2013). The conversation is between Patrick Flores, Director of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network and Artistic Director of the 2019-2020 Singapore Biennale; noted critic and curator Kari Rittenbach; and Aleesa Alexander, co-Director of the Asian American Art Initiative and Assistant Curator of American Art at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University. Carlos Villa: Walks of Life is on view from February 8 - March 26, 2021.

For nearly fifty years Carlos Villa has explored the meaning of cultural diversity in his art and in doing so has expanded our awareness of what we consider as “multicultural.” What began in his early career as an attempt to understand his own heritage--a complexity of Filipino traditions with its layered strains of Asian, African, Indian and Oceanic cultures, along with influences of a Western artistic tradition--became over time an exercise in creating his own visual anthropology to represent his personal background, and, in a broader sense, the dynamics of intercultural weaving.

— Preston Fletcher