Mercedes Dorame—Deliquescence: Sites of Transformation

Mercedes Dorame (b. 1980) is a Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary artist. She calls upon her Tongva ancestry to engage with ideas of cultural construction and ancestral connections to land and sky. By photographing and presenting places that hold mythical and cultural importance, she forges a dialogue with her Tongva ancestors and asserts the continuous presence of First Peoples and their stewardship of land and water. Born in Los Angeles, California, she received an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA. 

She is currently a member of the regular faculty in the Photo Media Program at CalArts and is part of the inaugural cohort of Unseen California. She was commissioned by the Getty for the sculptural installation Woosha’aaxre Yaangaro, presented as the inaugural Rotunda Commission. Her work was also on view in six PST ART exhibitions across Los Angeles. Her practice was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times article “How artist Mercedes Dorame shares pieces of her Tongva heritage across L.A.’s public landscapes,” and UCLA honored her through its centennial initiative “UCLA: Our Stories Our Impact” as an outstanding alumna advancing equal justice over the past 100 years.

Dorame’s work is held in the permanent collections of The Huntington, the Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Triton Museum of Art, among others. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Creative Capital Award, the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists, the Eiteljorg Contemporary Art Fellowship, and the Wanlass Artist in Residence Fellowship. She has exhibited internationally.