Visting Artist and Scholar Lecture Series | Chris E.Vargas

Join us for an evening with Chris E. Vargas, an interdisciplinary artist and video maker whose work blends humor, performance and popular media to explore how queer and trans people negotiate space within history, institutions and culture.

Public Lecture
Nov 17 | 6 p.m.
Grant Street Studios

Currently based in Los Angeles, Vargas creates work that examines identity, community and representation through accessible and satirical forms such as sitcoms, documentaries and conceptual museum projects. His practice offers a critical yet playful lens on how visibility and power shape collective memory.

Vargas is the recipient of a 2016 Creative Capital Award and a 2020 John S. Guggenheim Fellowship. From 2008 to 2013, he collaborated with Greg Youmans on “Falling In Love…with Chris and Greg,” a web-based trans/cisgender sitcom that screened at venues including MIX NYC, SF Camerawork and the Tate Modern. In collaboration with Eric Stanley, he co-directed “Homotopia” (2006) and its feature-length sequel “Criminal Queers” (2015), which have been presented at Palais de Tokyo, LACE, Center for Contemporary Arts Glasgow and the New Museum.

Vargas is also the Executive Director of MOTHA — the Museum of Transgender Hirstory & Art, a conceptual and critical arts project dedicated to recognizing the cultural and political contributions of trans artists.