The Visibility of Climate Change

 an ongoing examination of the climate crisis


research-based art project. calibrated. imaginative. scientific. collaborative.interdisciplinary work.
CURATORIAL EXHIBITION


 

Climate Interrelations Imaginative


Works / San José: community art and performance center:  38 S Second St, San Jose, CA 95113



Exhibiting Artists

kaory santillan bueno, indigenous (wixarika and na’ayari) scholar and transdisciplinary artist
Sarah Loyola, San Jose based mixed-media artist
Josie Lepe, independent photo-journalist  
Linda Gass, Bay Area artist and environmental activist


Guest Curator

Valentino Loyola

Opening: September 5, 2025  
Closing Reception: October 18, 2025




Performance Panels of Solidarity: large-scale mixed media panels, each discussing a case study on the detriment of environmental injustices and the distress of marginalized communities.

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1.  Mixed media climate justice panels spread across the gallery floor at the Citadel Art Studios, 29th, August 2024.  San Jose, CA.  

2.  Valentino Loyola observes his work in progress as he prepares to photograph them.

3.  A forward view of four mixed media panels that aim to address climate justice, described below:  

  • a) the history of redlining marginalized communities.  
  • b) the levee breach at the Pajaro River in Pajaro, CA due to the atmospheric river of March 2023.1
  • c) Groundwater contamination due to failed underground petroleum vessels in an East Side San Jose community, between Sunset and Jackson Ave on Alum Rock Ave.2
  • d) Solidarity and community organizing victories e.g., Mothers of East Los Angeles consisted of mothers/women with the spirit of motherhood from the Boyle Heights community during the early to mid-eighties who organized to prevent an incinerator plant from being developed in their community.3


1  https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/14/us/california-storm-pajaro-levee.html
2  https://sanjosespotlight.com/east-san-jose-residents-demand-environmental-justice/
3  Pardo, Mary. “Mexican American Women Grassroots Community Activists: ‘Mothers of East Los Angeles.’” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 11, no. 1 (1990): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346696.


Installation views of Valentino’s mixed media work, Performance Panels of Solidarity, 2025,  from the exhibition “And, Then What?” with Sarah Loyola at the Citadel Art Studios Gallery in San Jose, CA.  







The Future Is Collective, 2024

 

Ancient Reflections Other Worldly, 2023

This work contemplates our current environmental state of distress, and how Indigenous practices must be prevalent in the fight against climate change as a sustainable approach.

Body As Environment, 2023

A composite image around caring for our environment in the way we care for our bodies with protection, preservation, and good health in mind.


Long Future Ecology, 2023

Speculative-imaginative photographic composite that considers rising sea levels, how the melting ice caps in Greenland affect the Bay Area, among other critical spaces (the Marshall Islands for example), and wonderment of how humans will adapt/respond.











Valentino Loyola is an interdisciplinary artist.  His work comprises photography, mixed and multimedia.  



Curiosity-driven, big world questions-motivated, and lived experience when focused on identity.  He explores multiple paths to create art objects that embrace tangibility and transformation at the intersection of materials and concepts through research and performance.

Valentino recognizes the critical threat of climate change and climate justice and is committed to learning more about sustainable art practices and how to implement them into his creative environment and applications. Valentino's commitment to climate-forward values and goals entails looking first at Indigenous ecological stewardship, social equality, and sustainability.