VICTOR ANCHETA
Victor Ancheta is a gay artist, curator, and writer who grew up in the Philippines before moving to the United States. After graduating from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, he studied Studio Art and Creative Writing at the University of Houston-Downtown. Ancheta specializes in conceptual art and works with installations, sculptures, and paintings, all of which explore his identity and his connection to religion, colonial and post-colonial history, and the dismantling of traditions. Ancheta serves as the community liaison for the Houston Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs. His role involves curating exhibitions mounted at Houston City Hall and overseeing the highly-regarded Houston Poet Laureate program.
ARTIST STATEMENT
The world as I see it is a procession of angels and demons, virgins and sinners, with eyeless saints engaged in a sacra conversazione with the audience. My upbringing in the Philippines, a country with a rich Catholic tradition, inspired me to create santos or religious statues made from clay and wood. My works explore the human body, mortality, and sexuality by appropriating divine Catholic imagery in an act of irreverence.
My family's history plays a significant role in my artistic process. The stories my mother told me of my ancestors, especially my father, became part of my artistic journey. My figures are eyeless because my great-grandmother Valentina believed that "the eyes are the mirrors to the soul." By leaving them blank, I express my feeling of incompleteness and confinement. I weave my family's lives and words into the tapestry of my personal narrative.
As an immigrant in the United States, the weight of my colonial and post-colonial past is a struggle I face every day. My artworks reflect my experience as a DACA recipient and that of other immigrants, humanizing our stories and making our history concrete. Mixing all these inspirations, I create installations and sculptures that help me remain connected to my roots and culture.
In my work, I reflect on a Filipino saying close to my heart: "Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan." "Those who don't know how to look at their origin will not reach their destination."
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024
Second Time Around, Jamestown Arts Center, Jamestown, RI
2023
Lumikha Arts Showcase - We Are Rising, Pilipino American Unity for Progress at the Orange Show, Houston, TX
2022
30th Annual ArtCrawl at Hardy & Nance Studios, Hardy & Nance Studios, Houston, TX
2021
A New Landscape/ A Possible Horizon - Texas Biennial 2021, McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Pintura, ATBP, Philippine Consulate General Houston & Filipinx Artists of Houston, Houston, TX
Lumikha Arts Showcase - We Are Growing, Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Houston, TX
2020
Solo Show: Los Refugiados: An Exhibition by Victor Ancheta, Multicultural Education & Counseling through the Arts (MECA), Houston, TX
Solo Show: Meditations on Loss: An Exhibition by Victor Ancheta, MECA at TBH Center, Houston, TX
Faces in Pandemic, Organized by the Houston Asian American Archive, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, Texas
Lumikha Arts Showcase - We Have Begun, Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Houston, TX
2019
Solo Show: Los Refugiados: A Nativity Scene in Support of Latin American Refugees, Bering Memorial Church, Houston, TX
Imagenes de la Madre, MECA, Houston, TX
Araw ng mga Patay, Avenue 50 Studio, Highland Park, CA
Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, Morbid Anatomy, Brooklyn, NY
SELECTED CURATORIAL WORK
2023
Escala, Houston City Hall, September - October 2023; curated full exhibition that was fifth in the Expressions! series with works by Salvadoran American artist, Darwin Arévalo
Garden Traces, Houston City Hall, April - May 202; curated full exhibition that featured the work of artist Naomi Kuo and showcased her ongoing research about Asian American home gardeners in the Greater Houston area
2022
Trans——fer, Houston City Hall, September - November 2022; as part of FotoFest Houston and as a tribute to immigrants, curated full exhibition that consisted of photographs and mementos of artist Veronica Gaona’s family
From Where the Son Rose: A Story of Immigration to the West, Houston City Hall, March - April 2022; curated full exhibition focusing on the work of Filipino American artist Anthony Pabillano
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2023
Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month with Works by Darwin Arévalo by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
The Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs to Showcase the Works of Queer Latinx Creatives in City Hall by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs Announces Its Third Exhibition in the Expressions! Series with "Garden Traces” by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
MOCA Opens 2nd Exhibition in the Expressions! Series with Poet Laureate Emeritus of Houston, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
MOCA Opens 2023 Exhibition Series, Expressions! With a High-Tech Exhibit to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Black History Month by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
2022
MOCA Concludes 2022 Exhibition Series, Putting Down Roots: A Series of Exhibitions on Art and Immigration by Victor Ancheta for City of Houston
2020
Faces in the Pandemic by Lillian Hoang for Outsmart Magazine
Faces in the Pandemic by Maggie Galehouse for TMC News
Local Asian American artists respond to the pandemic in new Fondren exhibit by Josie Garza for The Rice Thresher
GROUPS
2019 to present
Filipinx Artists of Houston, founding member