Last Updated on April 9, 2021
Rigo 23 (b. 1966, Portugal), a Los Angeles-based Portuguese artist known for large-scale outdoor murals, is considered part of the first generation of the San Francisco Mission School art movement, which emerged in the city’s Mission District in the early 1990s. For nearly three decades, his socially engaged work has focused on addressing injustices, notably highlighting Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement who was convicted of murder in connection with the shooting deaths of two FBI special agents on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in 1975 and whose two life sentences have been the subject of much debate. Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves was the first presentation of the artist’s statue of Peltier after its contested removal from American University’s campus in early 2017.
Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves featured works that emphasize the artist’s longtime advocacy for social and political change, specifically calling attention to the incarceration of political prisoners and political organizing in support of indigenous communities in the United States. The exhibition takes its name from a quote by Robert H. King, former political prisoner and cofounder of the Black Panther party chapter at the Louisiana State penitentiary, who said, “The deeper they bury you, the louder your voice becomes. You throw pebbles into the pond, you get ripples; ripples become waves; the waves can become a tsunami.” Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves featured works that emphasize the artist’s longtime advocacy for social and political change, specifically calling attention to the incarceration of political prisoners and the plight of indigenous communities in the United States. The exhibition took its name from a quote by Robert H. King, former political prisoner and cofounder of the Black Panther Party chapter at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, who said, “The deeper they bury you, the louder your voice becomes. You throw pebbles into the pond, you get ripples; ripples become waves; the waves can become a tsunami.”
Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves was on view February 25 to May 13, 2018 with free admission.
Key Developments in Native American History
For more information that helps contextualize Rigo 23: Ripples Become Waves, a timeline of developments in Native American history is available online.
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ABOUT RIGO 23
Rigo 23 (b. 1966, Madeira Island, Portugal) lives in Los Angeles and works globally. He has exhibited his work internationally for more than 20 years, placing murals, paintings, sculptures, and tile work in public situations where viewers are encouraged to examine their relationship to their community and their role as unwitting advocates of public policy. Rigo’s works live both as artworks and thoughtful public interventions and have been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) and the Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles; the New Museum and Artists Space, New York City; and the Museo de Arte Contemporanea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His work has been included in the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, India; Aichi Triennial, Japan; Shenzhen Hong-Kong Bi-City Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture, China; Auckland Triennial, New Zealand; Lyon Biennale, France; 2006 Liverpool Biennial, United Kingdom; and 2004 California Biennial, among others. Rigo received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA from Stanford University.